Tradition and Reflection: Explorations in Indian Thought

Front Cover
SUNY Press, Jan 1, 1991 - Philosophy - 425 pages
This book examines, above all, the relationship between reason and Vedic revelation, and the philosophical responses to the idea of the Veda. It deals with such topics as dharma, karma and rebirth, the role of man in the universe, the motivation and justification of human actions, the relationship between ritual norms and universal ethics, and reflections on the goals and sources of human knowledge.

Halbfass presents previously unknown materials concerning the history of sectarian movements, including the notorious "Thags" (thaka), and relations between Indian and Iranian thought. The approach is partly philosophical and partly historical and philological; to a certain extent, it is also comparative.

The author explores indigenous Indian reflections on the sources, the structure and the meaning of the Hindu tradition, and traditional philosophical responses to social and historical realities. He does not deal with social and historical realities per se; rather, basing his work on the premise that to understand these realities the reflections and constructions of traditional Indian theorists are no less significant than the observations and paradigms of modern Western historians and social scientists, he explores the self-understanding of such leading thinkers as Sankara, Kumarila, Bhartrhari and Udayana.
 

Selected pages

Contents

The Idea of the Veda and the Identity of Hinduism
1
The Presence of the Veda in Indian Philosophical Reflection
19
Vedic Orthodoxy and the Plurality of Religious Traditions
45
Vedic Apologetics Ritual Killing and the Foundations of Ethics
81
Human Reason and Vedic Revelation in Advaita Vedānta
125
Śankara the Yoga of Patañjali and the SoCalled Yogasūtrabhāsyavivarana
199
The Therapeutic Paradigm and the Search for Identity in Indian Philosophy
235
Man and Self in Traditional Indian Thought
257
Competing Causalities Karma Vedic Rituals and the Natural World
283
Homo Hierarchicus The Conceptualization of the Varna System in Indian Thought
335
Abbreviations
395
Index
399
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1991)

Wilhelm Halbfass (1940-2000) was Professor of Indian Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding; On Being and What There Is: Classical VaisOEes-ika and the History of Indian Ontology; and the editor of Philology and Confrontation: Paul Hacker on Traditional and Modern Vedanta; all published by SUNY Press.

Bibliographic information