Suvidya

Journal of Philosophy and Religion

Treading a pathless land……..

      Once a calf walked home through a thick jungle. The distance to his home was a kilometer but he walked three because he was a vivacious calf, bubbling with life, enjoyed to wander here and there, left and right, up and down. The next day the shepherd’s dog, seeing the foot marks of the calf, walked the same path on its way back home. Shortly after, a sheep from the flock took the same path followed by the entire flock. Thus a path through the woods was made. Men began to tread the same path, cursing the twists and turns of the path, but doing nothing about it. Eventually, the path has become a lane, and lane turned into a road where the horses strode along and vehicles plied away. A century later the road became a street, and then a city’s crowded thoroughfare, with thousands following the footsteps of the wobbly calf.

      (This story and the poem are cited in Parable and Fables for Modern Man by Peter Ribes, pp65-66)

      Suvidya College, a centre of philosophy and Religion, affiliated to De Sales University, Allentown, USA, is twenty three years young. She refuses to tread the beaten path. In her earnestness to be creative, critical and effective in disseminating knowledge and truth to humanity, particularly to the philosophical world, she has mustered up courage to venture into a culture of journalism. Through this journal we visualize a re-reading of the classics to make them relevant and meaningful in the contemporary situations. The journal accentuates the Eastern philosophical traditions and enables the readers to perceive their distinctive characteristics from that of the Western philosophical traditions. The East is East and the West is West, yet, this is a forum for their confluence.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor

    Dr. Emmanuel Uppamthadathil msfs
    Dean, Institute of Philosophy and Religion
    Suvidya College, Electronics city P.O., Bangalore - 560 100
    Email: emmavaranasi@yahoo.com,  uppamthadathil@gmail.com

Dr. Thomas Kalariparambil msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. S. Panneerselvam Madras University, Chennai
Dr. Antony Mookenthottam msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. Ashok Vohra Delhi University, Delhi
Dr. George Panthanmackel msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. R. C. Pradhan Hyderabad University, Hyderabad
Dr. Joy Mampally msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. S. Vijayakumar Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Dr. Jolly Chakkalakkal msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. Douglas Huff Gustavus Adolphus College, USA
Dr. Santhosh Kumar msfs     Suvidya College, Bangalore	Dr. Bernard O’Connor osfs De Sales University, Allentown, USA

Consultants

    Prof. Ashok Kumar Chatterjee
    Former Head of the Department of Philosophy, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

    Prof. R. Balasubramaniam
    Former Chairman, ICPR & Former Head of the Department of Philosophy, Madras
    University, Chennai

    Prof. Ramakrishna Rao
    Chairman, Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Delhi

    Dr. Mathew Kozhuppakalam msfs
    Chairman, Governing Body, Suvidya College, Bangalore

Language Editor

    Dr. David Fleming, SM, Deepahalli College of the University of Dayton, USA

Book Review Editor

    Dr. Joy Mampally msfs

Circulation Manager

    Fr. Jose Thekkel msfs

    Suvidya, a biannual Journal of Philosophy and Religion, concentrates on critical and creative research in Eastern (particularly Indian) and Western Philosophical and Religious traditions. This journal seeks to promote original research and cultivate a fruitful dialogue between classical and contemporary schools of philosophical thought.

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                   Suvidya, Journal of Philosophy and Religion
                   Suvidya College, Electronics City P.O.
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                   Email: emmavaranasi@yahoo.com or uppamthadathil@gmail.com

Suvidya

Journal of Philosophy and Religion

Vol.1 No.1

Table of Contents

1. Alternation Or Antinomy? A Critical Look At Absolute As Alternation In Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya

Dr. George Panthanmackel, msfs

2. Advaita Hermeneutics: The Role of Language In the Revelation of Reality

Dr. Emmanuel Uppamthadathil msfs

3. Meaning and Language from Plato to Wittgenstein: An Overview

Dr. Ashok Vohra

4. “Wrong Knowledge”, Or Skepticism?

Dr. Srinivasa Rao

5. Reconstructive Sciences And The Idea Of A Universal Pragmatics

Dr. Santhosh Kumar Rayappa Msfs

6. Language as Discourse: Ricoeurean Paradigm

Dr. Panneerselvan

7. The Linguistic Revolution In Philosophy: Towards A New World-View

Dr. R.C.Pradhan

  Book Reviews

8. Modalities of the Transcendent and Modes of Human Response: A Study of Contemporary Phenomenology of Religion from the Perspective of Merleau-ponty , by K. Babu Joseph, Reviewed by Dr. David Fleming, MS, Ph.D.

9. Trends in Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Vol.1 No.2

Table of Contents

1. Nayavaada and Syadvada,-Revisited

C.R. Agera

2. Vritti-jnana Reconstructed

Amita Chatterjee

3. Communicative Epistemology

S. Panneerselvam

4. The Continuity of Tradition Emergence of Contemporary Approaches

Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty

5. Reality in Terms of Subject-Object Relation: Ramanuja’s Solution to the Problem of Knowledge

Joy Mampally msfs

6. Is Nyaya Theory of Epistemic Justification a Version of Process Reliabilism?

Sreekala Nair

7. Jaina Pramanya (With Special Reference to Anekantavada)

Mukul Raj Mehta

8. Gendering Epistemology - An Indian Perspective

S. Vanathu Antoni

  Book Reviews

9. Hari Shankar Prasad, The Centrality of Ethics in Buddhism: Exploratory Essays

Reviewed by Ashok Vohra

10. Tibor R.Machan, The Right Road to Radical Freedom

Reviewed by V. Prabhu

11. Joseph, V. S. George, Centrality of self in Saiva Siddhanta

Reviewed by Joy Mampally msfs

Editorial…

Cordial wishes for a prosperous New Year! The book you are reading from your hand is the second volume of Suvidya, Journal of Philosophy and Religion. The first volume was a huge success, more than what we thought of. The rave reviews we received were heartening. Your support and encouragement facilitated us to come out with the next volume on time without compromising on the standard style the journal has and the quality of the articles.

    The current issue deals with the epistemological problems from the Indian perspectives. There is a close relation between the metaphysics, a search into the speculative presuppositions of the reality as such and epistemology, an earnest inquiry into the possibilities of knowing the reality as such. In fact, the question “pramaanaadhina  prameya siddhihi?or prameyadhina pramana siddhihi” has raised a lot of epistemological dust which refuses to settle down even today. This is one of the reasons why the Indian thinkers developed their own epistemological systems unique to their own world view. Various words like cit, jnana etc are rendered in English as knowledge but such a loose translation would defeat all intent and purpose. Cit may be translated as consciousness and jnana as cognition. Cognition could be either true or false. Only a true cognition, in the strict sense, could be termed as knowledge. Hence prama?or prama jnana should be the terms proper as knowledge instead of the word jnana. If prama?is knowledge that is true, then aprama?is knowledge that is false. The western thinkers, taking the cue from Plato, never imagined of a wrong knowledge. Knowledge, if it is knowledge is always true. One needs not prefix “true” to knowledge just as one needs not prefix ‘sweet’ to sugar for sugar is always sweet. There is no sugar that is not sweet. The use of “true knowledge” therefore is tautology and the adjective “true” does not mean anything over and above the term “knowledge”. Wrong knowledge according to western thinkers, is not knowledge that is wrong, but it is a case of ‘no-knowledge’. Knowledge can never become wrong. When people say that the knowledge that the sun rotated around the earth was wrong only means that even in the first instance their claim to have knowledge of the sun rotating around the world was no knowledge at all. It could be a true belief. A belief could be true or false. Nonetheless, Indian thinkers generally speak of true knowledge and wrong knowledge. Knowledge could be true or false, valid or invalid. In fact there are very strong rival groups in India who have produced various arguments for validity and invalidity (praamanyavada) of knowledge in unending streams. Moreover, the elevation of consciousness to a metaphysical status, which is very peculiar to Indian philosophy, has further confounded the whole gamut of issues in Indian epistemology. Yet Indian epistemology is still rich and it has many things to offer to the current philosophical discussions. In the present edition, we have taken up in detail the epistemological issues discussed in Indian philosophical circles. There are eight well researched and well written articles covering a wide range of issues that are thought provoking as well as significant in the contemporary world. Books reviewed in this journal allow the reader to get accustomed to the current philosophical discussions.

Dr. Emmanuel Uppamthadathil msfs

Email address: emmavaranasi@yahoo.com