In the late 90s as a grad student I became interested in the utility of #analytic_philosophy as a language and method of presentation and looked to how other traditions used it - a thread on #Indian_philosophy 1/
I began reading the work of Bimal Krishna Matilal (1935-1991), who had studied traditional logic and mastered it as a Tarkatirtha at Sanskrit College in Calcutta by the early 1960s 2/
Another major figure in modern Indian philosophy JN Mohanty has this highly useful reminiscence of that time and Matilal’s approach sjsu.edu/people/anand.v… 2a/
He then went to Harvard for his PhD on the #navya_nyaya doctrine of negation; there he became acquainted by Quine (1908-2000) and his work on logic as an abstract continuation of the work of the empirical sciences 3/
Most of his works were written as a fellow of #AllSouls and Spalding Professor at #Oxford where he interacted with major figures like Peter Strawson (1919-2006) and Michael Dummett (1925-2011) for who he wrote Perception 4/
The work is a study of pramana and a defence of Nyaya-Vaisesika realism against Buddhist idealism and thus an intervention in epistemology, philosophy of language and also to an extent metaphysics 5/
It was through his work that I realised Indian philosophy was not primarily about #Vedanta and #mysticism but included #analytic schools such as #Nyaya 6/
Much of his earlier work concerns logic and the study of language such as his introduction to logic that is broadly based on Kneale and Kneale - logic is for him inference patterns, rules of debates and refutation of sophistical argument placed in a historical context 7/
Hence much of his work on #Buddhist logic and epistemology 8/
Perhaps the first work of his that i read was The Word and the World - perhaps his sense of mortality motivated the desire to establish ‘India’s contribution to the study of language’ 9/
As it was it presented the view of philosophers and grammarians on sphota - and I remember an early conversation with the late John Cooper on it that alerted me to the possibility of philosophy of language as a way to read Arabic grammar as well as legal theory 10/
Most of those usul al-fiqh texts had extensive discussions on meaning, the successful nature of utterances, the very nature and function of language where it came for and what it was for 11/
Of course he still wrote on metaphysics, mysticism and ethics - in fact two volumes published posthumously indicated his interests beyond mere refutation 12/
Matilal’s work alerts us to the possibilities within the #analytic tradition as well as ways to make sense of a non-western tradition of #philosophy and the ways in which #philology can be deployed for #philosophical analysis 13/
Further while some champions of the #analytic turn in the study of #IslamicPhilosophy can be too narrow in their conception of #philosophy Matilal is a good reminder of #analytic method being used to make sense of #mysticism and #religion as well 14/
I should also add the clarity and precision of his prose is a joy to read 15/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Sajjad Rizvi

Sajjad Rizvi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @mullasadra

9 Apr
None of #Plato dialogues were fully translated into Arabic or Persian in the classical period - and on that we have ‘Abd al-Rahman Badawi’s classic study - a short thread on #Persian translation 1/
The lives of the two modern #Persian translators of #Plato can be rather instructive on the nature of modern #iranian intellectual history 2/
The first of these was Mahmud Sana’i (1918-1985) who attended Alborz College, later studying philosophy and literature at Tehran University and then doing a PhD in psychology in #London 3/
Read 18 tweets
15 Dec 20
Some further thoughts on the links of #IslamicPhilosophy in #Iran and #NorthIndia relating to Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Dāmād Astarābādī (d. 1631), who is far less known than his student Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1636) 1/ ImageImageImage
Despite being the Shaykh al-islām of Iṣfahān late in life and a leading jurist of his time - he was the grandson of the first major jurist of the Safavid empire Shaykh Nūr al-dīn ʿAlī al-Karakī (d. 1534) - his work remains little known 2/
One of the peculiarities of his fame and work is the appearance in North India of his work al-Ufuq al-mubīn leading some (including myself I must admit) to talk of a 'school of Mīr Dāmād' in India academia.edu/1270535/Mir_Da… 3/
Read 20 tweets
14 Dec 20
Slowly it seems that interest in Islamic thought - the rational disciplines including philosophy and logic - in India is growing, and the recent book by Shankar Nair is a good indication towards it #IslamicPhilosophy #India 1/
His chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy is also a very positive approach; now a number of older works discussed the contributions of Indian scholars to the intellectual traditions in Islam oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/o… 2/ Image
Apart from works that focused on outlining the texts in the curricula and method known as the dars-e niẓāmī of which there are plenty especially in Urdu and some mentions in works by Francis Robinson and Jamal Malik brill.com/view/title/150 3/ Image
Read 35 tweets
13 Dec 20
The Chishtī Ṣābirī Sufi Shāh Muḥibbullāh Ilāhābādī is perhaps one of the most celebrated figures in Mughal intellectual history, acting as a confluence of the school of #IbnArabi #Avicennism and engagement with the court and #PersoIndica 1/
He is actually presented within the long and significant engagement with the school of #IbnArabi in North India and juxtaposed (at least in the much later reformist historiography) against the 'Naqshbandī' reaction of Shaykh Aḥmad Sirhindī (d. 1624) against monism 2/
He is sometimes co-opted into the polemics between the rigid 'Islamicity' of Aurangzeb and the 'liberal' tradition of Akbar and Dārā Shikoh - as one sees here jstor.org/stable/4414114… in which liberal is short for syncretic 2a/
Read 36 tweets
12 Dec 20
The #Mughal period in India is known for a court sponsored programme of translation from #Sanskrit and attempts to translate Indic metaphysics into the idiom of #Sufism and #Persianate #IslamicPhilosophy #PersoIndica 1/
We already have a number of important studies but first we should mention the highly important Perso-Indica project based in Paris and Bonn perso-indica.net
This is a great resource 2/
Then, of course, there is @AudreyTruschke work that is in many ways seminal in the turn to the Sanskrit sources to make sense of the intellectual and cultural history 3/
Read 25 tweets
3 Oct 20
Alongside the #ExeterTehranConvos I’m been thinking about the nature of philosophy and research in #Iran within the context of the reception of #European philosophy - thread on #philosophy in #Iran 1/ Image
And the ways in which continental philosophy dominated in an earlier period due to the influence of the #Heideggerians and the circle of #AhmadFardid (1909-1994) many of whom became prominent in the committee for the cultural revolution after 1979 2/ Image
But since then - and it seems perhaps a bit of a surprise that #Soroush was a major figure in the support of #analytic_philosophy then - #Anglophone philosophy is gaining an upper hand 3/ Image
Read 14 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(