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324Personal identity, minimalism, and madhyamakaPhilosophy East and West 52 (3): 373-385. 2002.The publication of Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons in 1984 revived and reshaped the debate on personal identity in Western philosophy. Not only does Parfit argue forcefully and ingeniously for a revisionary Reductionist theory of persons and their diachronic identity, but he also draws radical normative inferences from such a theory. Along the way he also mentions Indian Buddhist parallels to his own Reductionist theory. Some of these parallels are explored here, while particular attention is…Read more
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7Philosophical Finesse: Studies in the Art of Rational Persuasion (review)Philosophy and Literature 14 (1): 157-158. 1990.
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74Is whatever exists knowable and nameable?Philosophy East and West 49 (4): 401-414. 1999.Naiyāyikas are fond of a slogan, which often appears as a kind of motto in their texts: "Whatever exists is knowable and nameable." What does this mean? Is it true? The first part of this essay offers a brief explication of this important Nyāya thesis; the second part argues that, given certain plausible assumptions, the thesis is demonstrably false
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15History, Time, and Knowledge in Ancient IndiaHistory and Theory 38 (3): 307-321. 1999.The lack of interest in history in ancient India has often been noted and contrasted with the situation in China and the West. Notwithstanding the vast body of Indian literature in other fields, there is a remarkable dearth of historical writing in the period before the Muslim conquest and an associated indifference to historiography. Various explanations have been offered for this curious phenomenon, some of which appeal to the supposed currency of certain Indian philosophical theories. This es…Read more
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98Death and immortalityDistributors for the U.S. and Canada, Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1987.INTRODUCTION In The World as Will and Representation Schopenhauer writes: Death is the real inspiring genius or Musagetes of philosophy, and for this reason ...
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115Tolstoy, Death and the Meaning of LifePhilosophy 60 (232): 231-245. 1985.Questions about the meaning of life have traditionally been regarded as being of particular concern to philosophers. It is sometimes complained that contemporary analytic philosophy fails to address such questions, but there do exist illuminating recent discussions of these questions by analytic philosophers.1Perhaps what lurks behind the complaint is a feeling that these discussions are insufficiently close to actual living situations and hence often seem rather thin and bland compared with the…Read more
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Epistemology: Indian Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2001.First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
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31Regarding Immortality: ROY W. PERRETTReligious Studies 22 (2): 219-233. 1986.Would personal immortality have any value for one so endowed? An affirmative answer would seem so obvious to some that they might be tempted to go so far as to claim that immortality is a condition of life's having any value at all. The claim that immortality is a necessary condition for the meaningfulness of life seems untenable. What, however, of the claim that immortality is a sufficient condition for the meaningfulness of life? Though some might hold this to be the characteristic religious v…Read more
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24Personal Identity, Reductionism and the Necessity of OriginsErkenntnis 51 (2-3): 277-294. 1999.A thought that we all entertain at some time or other is that the course of our lives might have been very different from the way they in fact have been, with the consequence that we might have been rather different sorts of persons than we actually are. A less common, but prima facie intelligible thought is that we might never have existed at all, though someone rather like us did. Arguably, any plausible theory of personal identity should be able to accommodate both possibilities. Certain curr…Read more
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21The Philosopher as Writer: The Eighteenth Century (review)Philosophy and Literature 13 (2): 378-379. 1989.
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60John Hick on Faith: A Critique (review)International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 15 (1/2). 1984.
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85Intentionality and self-awarenessRatio 16 (3): 222-235. 2003.In this essay I defend both the individual plausibility and conjoint consistency of two theses. One is the Intentionality Thesis: that all mental states are intentional . The other is the Self-Awareness Thesis: that if a subject is aware of an object, then the subject is also aware of being aware of that object. I begin by arguing for the individual prima facie plausibility of both theses. I then go on to consider a regress argument to the effect that the two theses are incompatible. I discuss t…Read more
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23Dualistic and nondualistic problems of immortalityPhilosophy East and West 35 (4): 333-350. 1985.
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40Religion and politics in india: Some philosophical perspectivesReligious Studies 33 (1): 1-14. 1997.What is the traditional relation of religion to politics in India? Recent scholarly debate has generated at least two divergent answers. According to one view there is a long standing traditional opposition between religion and politics in India. According to another view a separation of religion from politics is contrary to Indian ways of thinking. I argue that from the perspective of classical Indian philosophy there is no single tradition on the issue of religion and politics. To be able do s…Read more
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169Buddhism, abortion and the middle wayAsian Philosophy 10 (2). 2000.What have modern Buddhist ethicists to say about abortion and is there anything to be learned from it? A number of writers have suggested that Buddhism (particularly Japanese Buddhism) does indeed have something important to offer here: a response to the dilemma of abortion that is a 'middle way' between the pro-choice and pro-life extremes that have polarised the western debate. I discuss what this suggestion might amount to and present a defence of its plausibility.
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Metaphysics: Indian Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2000.First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
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19Dialogue at the Margins: Whorf, Bakhtin, and Linguistic Relativity (review)Philosophy and Literature 16 (2): 376-378. 1992.
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127Indigenous rights and environmental justiceEnvironmental Ethics 20 (4): 377-391. 1998.The modern environmental movement has a tradition of respect for indigenous cultures and many environmentalists believe that there are important ecological lessons to be learned from studying the traditional life styles of indigenous peoples. More recently, however, some environmentalists have become more sceptical. This scepticism has been sharpened by current concerns with the cause of indigenous rights. Indigenous peoples have repeatedly insisted on their rights to pursue traditional practice…Read more