Transcendental Contradictions: The Spectre of Non-Being in Early to Middle Brāhmanic-Hindu Thought-System
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Purushottama Bilimoria
Abstract
Hindu philosophy, like other philosophical traditions, recognized the power and destabilizing impact of contradictions in discourse about the ultimate and human existence. The question is how Hindu philosophers addressed these contradictions—whether they accepted them as true or ignored them. This chapter takes a logico-epistemological approach, divided into three parts. The first examines contradictions in early scriptural texts, particularly the Vedas, on cosmogony and cosmology. The second explores how classical philosophers like Gauḍapāda and Śańkara responded to contradictions between the polymorphic heterogeneity of the Vedas and the Absolutism in the Upaniṣads. The third considers critiques from the Nyāya (Onto-Logic) school against Vedānta. The conclusion argues that the Nyāya did not make recourse to paraconsistent logic or dialetheism, while clearly the Vedānta approach did, and thus was able to present a more coherent solution to the contradictory tensions between the binaries pointed to, especially between transcendence and the immanent other.
Abstract
Hindu philosophy, like other philosophical traditions, recognized the power and destabilizing impact of contradictions in discourse about the ultimate and human existence. The question is how Hindu philosophers addressed these contradictions—whether they accepted them as true or ignored them. This chapter takes a logico-epistemological approach, divided into three parts. The first examines contradictions in early scriptural texts, particularly the Vedas, on cosmogony and cosmology. The second explores how classical philosophers like Gauḍapāda and Śańkara responded to contradictions between the polymorphic heterogeneity of the Vedas and the Absolutism in the Upaniṣads. The third considers critiques from the Nyāya (Onto-Logic) school against Vedānta. The conclusion argues that the Nyāya did not make recourse to paraconsistent logic or dialetheism, while clearly the Vedānta approach did, and thus was able to present a more coherent solution to the contradictory tensions between the binaries pointed to, especially between transcendence and the immanent other.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Dedication V
- Contents VII
- Introduction: Facing Contradiction in the Absolute 1
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Part I : Asian Philosophy
- Transcendental Contradictions: The Spectre of Non-Being in Early to Middle Brāhmanic-Hindu Thought-System 9
- “It is Distant, it is Near” – Vedāntic Hindu Visions of Divine Contradictions 39
- Contradictions and Certainty: The Mīmāṃsā Defense of the Authorless Veda 61
- Buddhism, Emptiness, and Paradox 77
- All in One Mind. Huayan’s Holistic Panbuddhism 89
- Heidegger and Dōgen on the Ineffable 105
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Part II : Christian Philosophy
- Contradiction and God Between Neoplatonism and the Byzantine Tradition: Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Nicholas of Methone 137
- The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa 169
- Identity and non-Identity of the Human Soul with God in Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysical Mysticism 185
- Hegel’s Absolute from a Logical Point of View 211
- The One, the Many, and the Trinity: A Dialetheist Response to the Trinitarian Contradiction 221
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Part III: Jewish and Islamic Philosophy
- “Laud and praise Him justly and uprightly, not by attributing to Him exaggerations and absurdities”: God and logic in Jewish thought 249
- On Ayin, or the Divine Nothing 269
- Transcendence vs. Immanence in Jewish Philosophy and Poetry 289
- God’s attributes; Are aḥwāl contradictory? 297
- God and Impossibility: A Classical Ashʿarī Perspective 311
- Is Being Contradictory? — Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Principle of Non-Contradiction 347
- Contributors
- Names Index
- Topic Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Dedication V
- Contents VII
- Introduction: Facing Contradiction in the Absolute 1
-
Part I : Asian Philosophy
- Transcendental Contradictions: The Spectre of Non-Being in Early to Middle Brāhmanic-Hindu Thought-System 9
- “It is Distant, it is Near” – Vedāntic Hindu Visions of Divine Contradictions 39
- Contradictions and Certainty: The Mīmāṃsā Defense of the Authorless Veda 61
- Buddhism, Emptiness, and Paradox 77
- All in One Mind. Huayan’s Holistic Panbuddhism 89
- Heidegger and Dōgen on the Ineffable 105
-
Part II : Christian Philosophy
- Contradiction and God Between Neoplatonism and the Byzantine Tradition: Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Nicholas of Methone 137
- The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa 169
- Identity and non-Identity of the Human Soul with God in Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysical Mysticism 185
- Hegel’s Absolute from a Logical Point of View 211
- The One, the Many, and the Trinity: A Dialetheist Response to the Trinitarian Contradiction 221
-
Part III: Jewish and Islamic Philosophy
- “Laud and praise Him justly and uprightly, not by attributing to Him exaggerations and absurdities”: God and logic in Jewish thought 249
- On Ayin, or the Divine Nothing 269
- Transcendence vs. Immanence in Jewish Philosophy and Poetry 289
- God’s attributes; Are aḥwāl contradictory? 297
- God and Impossibility: A Classical Ashʿarī Perspective 311
- Is Being Contradictory? — Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Principle of Non-Contradiction 347
- Contributors
- Names Index
- Topic Index
