Indian philosophy - Vedanta, Upanishads, Brahman

Indian philosophy

Table of Contents

Introduction
General considerations
- Significance of Indian philosophies in the history of philosophy
- General characteristics of Indian philosophy
  - Common concerns
  - Forms of argument and presentation
- Roles of sacred texts, mythology, and theism
- A general history of development and cultural background
  - The prelogical period
  - The logical period
  - The ultralogical period
Historical development of Indian philosophy
- Presystematic philosophy
  - Shruti and the nature of authority
  - Development of the notion of transmigration
  - Origin of the concept of brahman and atman
  - The principles underlying macrocosm and microcosm
- Early Buddhist developments
  - Background
  - The Four Noble Truths and the nature of suffering
  - The path of liberation: methods of the Eightfold Path
  - The concepts of anatta and nibbana
- The philosophical portions of the Mahabharata
  - “Mokshadharma”
    - Proto-Samkhyan texts
    - Non-Samkhyan texts
    - Early theories of kingship and state
  - The Bhagavadgita
- Doctrines and ideas of the Buddhist Tipitaka
- Early system building
  - The history of the sutra style
  - The Purva-mimamsa-sutras and Shabara’s commentary
  - The Vedanta-sutras
    - Relation to the Mimamsa-sutras
    - Contents and organization of the four books
    - Variations in views
  - The Samkhya-karikas
    - Relation to orthodoxy
    - The nature of the self (purusha)
    - The nature, origin, and structure of the world (prakriti)
    - The concept of the three qualities (gunas)
    - Epistemology
    - Ethics
  - The Yoga-sutras
    - Relation to Samkhya
    - God, self, and body
    - Theories and techniques of self-control and meditation
  - The Vaisheshika-sutras
    - Organization and contents
    - Structure of the world
    - Naturalism
    - Epistemology
    - Ethics
  - The Nyaya-sutras
    - Content and organization
    - Epistemology
    - Theory of causation and metaphysics
    - The syllogism and its predecessors
    - Other characteristic philosophic matters
  - The beginnings of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy
    - Contributions of the Mahasangikas
    - Contributions of the Sarvastivadins
    - Contributions of the Sautrantikas
  - The worldview of the Arthashastra
    - Theories of kingship and statecraft
    - Concepts of the public good
    - Relations between states
    - The formation and implementation of policy
  - Fragments from the Ajivikas and the Charvakas
    - The Ajivikas
    - The Charvakas
- Further developments of the system
  - Developments in Mahayana
    - Nagarjuna and Shunyavada
    - Contributions of Vasubandhu and Asanga
    - Contributions of Dignaga and Dharmakirti
  - Purva-Mimamsa: the Bhatta and Prabhakara schools
    - Principal texts and relation to Shabara
    - Metaphysics and epistemology
    - Ethics
    - Hermeneutics and semantics
    - Religious consequences
  - The linguistic philosophies: Bhartrihari and Mandana-Mishra
  - Nyaya-Vaisheshika
    - The old school
    - The new school
  - Samkhya and Yoga
    - Texts and commentaries until Vachaspati and the “Samkhya-sutras”
    - Metaphysics and epistemology
    - Ethics
    - Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga
    - Religious consequences
  - Vedanta
    - Fragments from the Mandukya-karika until Shankara
    - Varieties of Vedanta schools
    - The concepts of nondualism
    - Shankara’s theory of error and religious and ethical concerns
    - Concepts of bhedabheda
    - Ramanuja
    - Madhva
    - Nimbarka
    - Vallabha
    - Chaitanya
  - Vaishnava schools
  - Shaivite schools
    - Shaiva-siddhanta
    - Kashmiri Shaivism
- Jain philosophy
- Mughal philosophy
- 19th- and 20th-century philosophy in India and Pakistan

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No commentary on the Vedanta-sutras survives from the period before Shankara, though both Shankara and Ramanuja referred to the vrittis by Bodhayana and Upavarsha (the two may indeed be the same person). There are, however, pre-Shankara monistic interpreters of the scriptures, three of whom are important: Bhartrihari, Mandana (both mentioned earlier), and Gaudapada. Shankara referred to Gaudapada as the teacher of his own teacher Govinda, complimented him for having recovered the advaita (nondualism) doctrine from the Vedas, and also wrote a bhashya on Gaudapada’s main work: the karikas on the Mandukya Upanishad. Gaudapada’s karikas are divided into four parts: the ...(100 of 27044 words)

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