| Unit name | Indian Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THRS10056 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | C/4 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Gethin |
| Open unit status | Open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Religion and Theology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Indian thought is often assumed by those unfamiliar with its history to be mostly about the illusory nature of the world. In fact India’s philosophical heritage is as rich and diverse as the West’s. The aim of this unit is to introduce students to the varieties of Indian thought, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain. Following a brief consideration of the Eurocentrism that has tended to exclude Indian thought from academic philosophy in the West, the unit will survey Indian theories of knowledge and the varieties of Indian metaphysics, including the materialism of ancient Lokayata, the realism of Vaisheshika, the dualism of Samhya and Yoga, the monism of Vedanta, the reductionism of Buddhist Abhidharma, the non-realism of Buddhist Madhyamaka, and the idealism of Buddhist Yogacara. The unit will also take in Indian arguments about rebirth, the existence of God, the person, perception and causality.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to demonstrate:
(1) a broad understanding of the varieties of Indian philosophical thought;
(2) an understanding of how Indian thinkers have reflected philosophically on various issues, including knowledge, ontology, God, rebirth and the person;
(3) an ability to analyse and explain how Indian thinkers have reflected philosophically on various issues, including knowledge, ontology, God, rebirth and the person;
(4) the ability to identify and evaluate pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent argument, at a standard appropriate to level C/4.
1 x one-hour lecture and 1 x one-hour seminar per week.
One essay of 1500 words (50%) and one 2-hour examination (50%). Both will assess ILOs 1-4.
Eliot Deutsch, Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1973)
Wilhelm Halbfass, On Being and What There is: Classical Vaisheshika and the History of Indian Ontology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992).
Richard King, Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999)
Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, Samkhya: A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)
Jitendra Nath Mohanty, Classical Indian Philosophy (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)
Roy W. Perrett, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
