Back to Schedule and Participants
Back to Colloquium Home
|
Office |
Home |
|
|
Address |
Department of Philosophy |
|
|
Phone |
(512) 471-4857, (512) 471-5080 |
|
|
FAX |
(512) 471-4806 |
|
|
Phone (other) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Web site |
|
|
|
Other |
|
|
Steve Phillips is a Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies at the University of Texis at Austin. He specializes in Indian philosophy, especially Nyaaya, Navya Nyaaya, Vedaanta, and the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. His works include Aurobindo's Philosophy of Brahman (E. J. Brill1986) and Classical Indian Metaphysics: Refutations of Realism and the Emergence of "New Logic" (Chicago: Open Court, 1995).
Classical Indian philosophy includes at least five major approaches to the questions of what constitutes knowledge and what are the standards of epistemic justification. From this effort flow rules for debate and standards for the evaluation of beliefs on topics ranging from Brahman to man to nature with particularly noteworthy applications in metaphysics, medicine, jurisprudence, and aesthetics. This paper will present an overview of the accomplishment. What is the relevance of all this to philosophy now? The paper will conclude with a few words in the spirit of a "state of the discipline" assessment of the standing of Indian epistemology within academia and the philosophy profession in particular.