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.