No.9 Seminar ： Indian philosophy as classical philology
- Taisei Shida（The Hakubi Center）
- 2010/10/05 4:00pm
- The Hakubi Center (iCeMS West Wing 2F, Seminar Room)
- Japanese
Summary
Indian Philosophy, or more generally Indology, was established in Europe at the end of 18th century. In Japan also, by the early period of the Meiji era, Tokyo Imperial University offered a class in Indian and Chinese Philosophy. Nevertheless it is often labeled as an impractical field of study, without much practical implication for modern society.
Since then, Indology has focused its efforts on Indian classical literature written in the Sanskrit and other languages, using text-critical methodology derived from Western classical study. The discipline has matured as basic field of study, but with repeated reflections on whether it lays a disproportionate amount of emphasis on analysis of texts. Indology has also continued to make small but important advances in recent years with the discovery of precious manuscripts.
In the next seminar, after a brief introduction to the history of Indology from its origin to recent developments, I will present the current state of my own Hakubi-project – a study of the proof of the eternity of sound by the Mīmāṃsā (Hermeneutic) School in classical India.
Additionally, I will introduce some background material concerning classical Indian philosophy, such as debate over the existence of God or the means of justifying cognition, which provided the inspiration for my own Hakubi-project.