Language in Indian Philosophy and Religion

Description

The papers published in this volume were originally read and discussed at a three day seminar sponsored by the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion/Societie Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, May 28th to 30th, 1976. This seminar served the important function of bringing together the majority of the Canadian scholars who specialize in Indian Philosophy and Religion. The topic, Language was chosen a year earlier so that advance study on a common theme could be undertaken by all who participated. Some thirty professors, as well as a few senior graduate students, engaged in the discussion. An additional and important feature of the seminar was that since it was held during the Learned Societies meetings, a number of Western scholars with an interest in language were able to listen in to the thinking of their Eastern colleagues. This provided the basis for some interesting and informed dialogue.

Sujets

• Religión
• Philosophy
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781554586608
• Langue: English

Extrait

LANGUAGE IN INDIAN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Edited and Introduced by Harold G. Coward University of Calgary
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Language in Indian philosophy and religion (SR supplements ; 5)
Papers originally read at a seminar sponsored by the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion/ Soci t canadienne des sciences religieuses at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, May 28th to 30th, 1976.
Includes index. ISBN 0-919812-07-4 pa.
1. Philosophy, Indie - Congresses. 2. Languages - Philosophy - Congresses. I. Coward, Harold G., 1936- II. Canadian Society for the Study of Religion. III. Series.
B131.L35 181 .4 C77-001780-0
1978 Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses/ Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion
To Professor T.R.V. Murti
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
HAROLD G. COWARD / Introduction
KLAUS KLOSTERMAIER / The Creative Function of the Word
KRISHNA SIVARAMAN / The Saiva and the Grammarian Perspectives of Language
DEBABRATA SINHA / Reflections on Some Key Terms in Advaita Ved nta
MERVYN SPRUNG / Non-Cognitive Language in M dhyamika Buddhism
BIMAL KRISHNA MATILAL / The Ineffable
MAHESH MEHTA / Ineffability Reconsidered
LESLIE KAWAMURA / Is Reconstruction from Tibetan into Sanskrit Possible?
EDITORIAL NOTE
The papers published in this volume were originally read and discussed at a three day seminar sponsored by the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion/Societie Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, May 28th to 30th, 1976. This seminar served the important function of bringing together the majority of the Canadian scholars who specialize in Indian Philosophy and Religion. The topic, Language was chosen a year earlier so that advance study on a common theme could be undertaken by all who participated. Some thirty professors, as well as a few senior graduate students, engaged in the discussion. An additional and important feature of the seminar was that since it was held during the Learned Societies meetings, a number of Western scholars with an interest in language were able to listen in to the thinking of their Eastern colleagues. This provided the basis for some interesting and informed dialogue.
In addition to those whose papers are printed in this volume, the seminar benefited from the following scholars who acted as formal respondents: Roy Amore, University of Windsor; Terence Day, University of Manitoba; Leon Hurvitz, University of British Columbia; and Wayne Whillier, McMaster University.
A special word of thanks is due to Penny Rusk, Carolina Maloney and Joan Barton, secretaries in the office of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, for their patient typing and retyping of the manuscripts until a camera-ready copy was achieved. Finally, as organizer and chairman of the seminar, I want to acknowledge the support given this project by Cathleen Going, Past President of CSSR, and the encouragement of Peter Slater, CSSR Publications Officer, to assemble this volume for the Mini-Publication Series of the society. October, 1976 Harold G. Coward Department of Religious Studies The University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta Canada
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
HAROLD COWARD is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Indian Philosophy and Religion from McMaster University. In 1972, he was a visiting scholar at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Philosophical Quarterly (India), The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Studies In Religion.He is the author of Bhartrhari (1976), and editor of Mystics and Scholars (1977).
LESLIE KAWAMURA is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism from the University of Saskatchewan and an M.A. from Kyoto University, Japan. He is co-author with Herbert Guenther of Mind In Buddhist Psychology (1975), and author of the Golden Zepher (1975)
KLAUS KLOSTERMAIER is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He holds a Dr. Phil. in Philosophy from the Gregorian University, Rome and a Ph.D. in Ancient Indian History and Culture from Bombay University, and studied and taught in India for nine years. He is the author of Hinduismus (1965), Hindu and Christian in Vrindaban (1970), Mahatma Gandhi: Freiheit ohne Gewalt (1968) Salvation, Liberation, Self-realization (1974) and numerous articles in Orientalist and Philosophical and Religious Studies Journals.
BIMAL KRISHNA MATILAL is Spaulding Professor of Comparative Religion, Oxford University. He previously taught in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, University of Toronto. He is editor of the Journal of Indian Philosophy, and author of Epistemology, Logic and Grammar in Indian Philosophical Analysis (1971) and The Navyany ya Doctrine of Negation (1968).
MAHESH MEHTA is Associate Professor of Indian and Buddhist Philosophy and Religion at the University of Windsor. He holds a Ph.D. from Bombay University and studied and taught at the Universities of Bombay, Pennsylvania and Windsor for ten years. He is the author of The Mah bh rata- A Study of the Critical Edition (in press)
DEBARATA SINHA is Professor of Philosophy at Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Calcutta University.
KRISHNA SIVARAMAN is Associate Professor of Religion at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University where he taught before coming to Canada. He is author of Saivism in Philosophical Perspective (1972) .
MERVYN SPRUNG is Professor of Philosophy at Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Berlin. His published articles have appeared in various Philosophy and Religious Studies journals. He is the editor of The Problem of Two Truths in Buddhism and Vedanta (1973).
INTRODUCTION By Harold Coward
The papers contained in this volume not only present the ongoing debate over language in Indian thought, but they also relate at key points to the discussion of language in contemporary Western philosophy. This should prove helpful to Western scholars venturing forth into Indian philosophy for the first time. For the Eastern specialists themselves, the references to modern Western thinking on language are suggestive of comparative studies that should be undertaken in the future. Since these essays were composed under the time and space limitations of a conference, they make no pretense at exhausting the discussion of language in Indian thought - no three day seminar could do that! Yet, within this limitation, many of the key problems regarding language are effectively examined.
Klaus Klostermaier takes us far back into traditional Indian thought and introduces the thesis of the Grammarian School, namely, that language or word has the power to create and reveal reality. He helpfully distinguishes the positive connotation of the term creative in the West from the Indian notion of creation as but a retracing of the forgotten eternal truth. As Klostermaier puts it, whereas creation in the West is like the making of a new path, the great Indian thinkers describe their activity and the function of language as the clearing of an overgrown ancient path so as to return or rediscover the source. He also introduces the very broad and many-sided manner in which the terms language and word are used in Indian thought. Although this way of thinking of language is not common in the West, Klostermaier points out that it is found in Hebrew and Christian sources. In addition to presenting in a clear way the philosophy of language of the Grammarians, Klostermaier s paper provides interesting comparisons between this ancient Indian viewpoint and the theories of modern physics and biology. He argues that both modern science and the ancient Indian view of language share a common theoretical position; namely, that the relationship between reality and thought is not one of simple identity or difference, but rather a symmetry correlating two realities that mutually constitute each other.
In his paper Krishna Sivaraman welcomes the Grammarian theory of language, but, in true Indian fashion, he argues that the Grammarian view has a major weakness which is corrected by the aiva approach. The point at issue is this. Whereas for the Grammarian the ultimate or absolute is language itself ( abdabrahman ), for the aiva philosopher language is not ultimate but simply a power of the ultimate, i.e., parama , iva . Language in the aiva approach, therefore, is not to be viewed as an independent self-subsistent principle - the way it is conceived within the Grammar School. The Saiva view is that language or speech is not itself being but only an actualization of being. As Sivaraman concludes, It is the difference between achieving transcendence in language and the achieving of transcendence of language itself.
As Debabrata Sinha points out, Advaita Ved nta, like Saivism, looks for a reality beyond language itself. The issue is one that is shared by modern approaches to the philosophy of language. How far can language be taken as an expression of reality? Since in most Eastern viewpoints one must trust some form of direct intuition for the experience of reality, Sinha examines the techniques of the Upanisadic seers in which language is often used in a negative way to clear the ground for intuition. Before presenting the Advaita Ved nta solution to the problem of bridging the gap between languag