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book: Existence and Perception in Medieval Vedānta
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Existence and Perception in Medieval Vedānta

Vyāsatīrtha’s Defence of Realism in the Nyāyāmr̥ta
  • Michael Thomas Williams
  • Funded by: Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024
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About this book

Open Access

This book focuses on discussions of metaphysics and epistemology in early modern India found in the works of the South Indian philosopher Vyāsatīrtha (1460–1539). Vyāsatīrtha was pivotal to the ascendancy of the Mādhva tradition to intellectual and political influence in the Vijayanagara Empire.

This book is primarily a philosophical reconstruction based on original translations of relevant parts of Vyāsatīrtha’s Sanskrit philosophical text, the “Nectar of Logic” (Nyāyāmr̥ta). Vyāsatīrtha wrote the Nyāyāmr̥ta as a vindication of his tradition’s theistic world view against the Advaita tradition of Vedānta. In the centuries after it was written, the Nyāyāmr̥ta came to dominate philosophical discussions among Vedānta traditions in India.

The Advaitins argued for an anti-realist stance about the empirical world, according to which the world of our experience is simply an illusion that can be dispelled by a deep study of the Upaniṣads. This book reconstructs the parts of the Nyāyāmr̥ta where Vyāsatīrtha argues in favor of the reality of the world against the Advaitins. Philosophically, it focuses on the concept of existence in Vyāsatīrtha’s metaphysics, and on his arguments about knowledge and the philosophy of perception.

Author / Editor information

Michael Thomas Williams, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 6, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9783110728521
Hardcover published on:
August 6, 2024
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110728491
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
10
Main content:
327
Tables:
1
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