History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China

HPI 36 - Fine Grained Analysis - Kanada's Vaisesika-Sutra 19.02.2017 19:22 ↓

The Vaiśeṣika school offers a metaphysical analysis of the world and an atomistic physics.

HPI 35 - Ujjwala Jha and V.N. Jha on Nyaya 05.02.2017 40:22 ↓

Prof Jha and Prof Jha discuss the theories and later influence of the Nyāya school.

HPI 34 - The Truth Shall Set You Free - Nyaya on the Mind 22.01.2017 21:41 ↓

Nyāya proposes that each of us has both a self and a mind, in addition to the body.

HPI 33 - Standard Deductions - Nyaya on Reasoning 08.01.2017 19:55 ↓

Gautama and his commentators tell us how to separate good inferences from bad ones.

HPI 32 - What You See Is What You Get - Nyaya on Perception 25.12.2016 21:56 ↓

Nyāya philosophers explain how perception can bring us knowledge.

HPI 31 - Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire - Gautama’s Nyaya-Sutra 11.12.2016 21:30 ↓

The Nyāya-Sūtra inaugurates a tradition of logical and epistemological analysis.

HPI 30 - Philipp Maas on Yoga 27.11.2016 29:32 ↓

A leading expert on the founding text of Yoga tells us why, when, and by whom it was written.

HPI 29 - Practice Makes Perfect - Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra 13.11.2016 19:41 ↓

Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.

HPI 28 - Who Wants to Live Forever? - Early Ayurvedic Medicine 30.10.2016 23:55 ↓

Philosophical aspects of Ayurveda, focusing on the oldest surviving medical treatise, the Caraka-Samhita.

HPI 27 - The Theory of Evolution - Isvarakrsna’s Samkhya-karika 16.10.2016 24:17 ↓

The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind.

HPI 26 - Francis Clooney on Vedanta 02.10.2016 34:22 ↓

Francis Clooney joins us to discuss the religious and philosophical aspects of Vedānta.

HPI 25 - Communication Breakdown - Bhartrihari on Language 18.09.2016 19:19 ↓

The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman.

HPI 24 - No Two Ways About It - Sankara and Advaita Vedanta 04.09.2016 21:57 ↓

Śaṅkara and his “non-dual” (Advaita) Vedānta, which teaches that only brahman is real, and the world of experience and individual self are mere illusion.

Summer Reading 06.08.2016 2:06 ↓

How to fill the month of August while the podcast is on summer break. Buy the book versions of the podcast at Oxford University Press .

HPI 23 - Source Code - Badarayana’s Vedanta-sutra 24.07.2016 18:32 ↓

The founding text of the Vedānta school, the Vedānta- or Brahma-Sūtra, interprets the Upaniṣads as teaching that all things derive from brahman.

HPI 22 - Elisa Freschi on Mimamsa 10.07.2016 35:43 ↓

Mīmāṃsā expert Elisa Freschi speaks to Peter about philosophical issues arising from the interpretation of the Veda.

HPI 21 - Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Mimamsa on Knowledge and Language 26.06.2016 20:18 ↓

The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning.

HPI 20 - Master of Ceremonies - Jaimini’s Mimamsa-Sutra 12.06.2016 20:42 ↓

In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.

HPI 19 - When in Doubt - the Rise of Skepticism 29.05.2016 23:16 ↓

Skeptical tendences in Indian thought and responses to skepticism from the Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta schools.

HPI 18 - A Tangled Web - the Age of the Sutra 14.05.2016 24:04 ↓

Rival philosophical schools proliferate and subdivide in our second major historical period, the “age of the sūtra.”

HPI 17 - Jessica Frazier on Hinduism and Philosophy 01.05.2016 34:57 ↓

An interview with Jessica Frazier about philosophical ideas and arguments in the Vedas, Upanisads and later Hindu texts.

HPI 16 - Better Half - Women in Ancient India 17.04.2016 21:27 ↓

Women philosophers and ideas about women in Buddhism, the Upanisads, and the Mahabharata.

HPI 15 - Mostly Harmless - Non-Violence 03.04.2016 24:07 ↓

Vegetarianism and non-violence (ahimsa) in ancient Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

HPI 14 - World on a String - The Bhagavad-Gita 20.03.2016 20:12 ↓

The Bhagavad-Gītā or “Song of the Lord” from the Mahābhārata ties its theory of detached action to an innovative conception of the divine.

HPI 13 - Grand Illusion - Dharma and Deception in the Mahabharata 06.03.2016 20:44 ↓

The great Hindu epic Mahābhārata explores moral dilemmas and the permissibilty of lying, against the background of the ethical concept of dharma.