How do we know what we know? The most prominent means of knowledge for Indian philosophers are direct perception (
pratyakṣa), inference (
anumāna) and authority (
śabda). Then there is the much debated “postulation” (
arthāpatti), a point of controversy among Mimamsa, Nyaya, and Buddhist philosophers.
Consisting of translations of central primary texts and newly-commissioned scholarly essays,
Controversial Reasoning in Indian Philosophy: Major Texts and Arguments on Arthâpatti (Bloomsbury Academic) is a ground-breaking reference resource for understanding
arthāpati, and debates in Indian philosophy at large.
Malcolm Keating is Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Humanities Division of Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
For information on your host Raj Balkaran’s background, see rajbalkaran.com/scholarship.