Analytical Philosophy in Comparative Perspective : Exploratory Essays in Current Theories and Classical Indian Theories of Meaning and Reference

408 Pages·1984·16.243 MB·English

by  Matilal, Bimal Krishna, Shaw, Jaysankar Lal (eds.)

ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY,
LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Managing Editor:
JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Florida State University, Tallahassee
Editors:
DONALD DA VIDSON, University o/Cali/ornia, Berkeley
GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University 0/ Leyden
WESLEY C. SALMON, University a/Pittsburgh
VOLUME 178
ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY
IN
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Exploratory Essays in Current Theories and
Classical Indian Theories of Meaning and Reference
Edited by
BIMAL KRISHNA MATILAL
All Souls College, Oxford
and
JAYSANKAR LAL SHAW
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
and University of Hawaii, Honolulu
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY
A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER MACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER
Ubrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Analytical philosophy in comparative perspective.
(Synthese library; v. 178)
Includes index.
1. Analysis (Philosophy)-Addresses, essays, lectures. 1. Matilal,
Bimal Krishna, II. Shaw, J. L., 1939-
B808.5.A533 1984 149'.943 84-20259
ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-6501-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-6499-0
001: 10.1007/978-94-009-6499-0
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
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In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group,
P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland.
All Righ ts Reserved
© 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
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including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Analytical Philosophy in Comparative Perspective:
An Introduction
Bimal K. Matilal
We Are All Children of God
M. J. Cresswell 39
The Syncategorematic Treatment of Predicates
Paul Gochet 61
The Paradox of Naming
William Lycan 81
Substance and Kind: Reflections on the New Theory
of Reference
Steven E. Boer 103
The Easy Examination Paradox
Frank Jackson lSI
Models for Actions
Krister Segerberg 161
Some Problems Concerning Meaning
Kalidas Bhattacharya 173
Abstraction, Analysis and Universals:
The Navya-Nyaya Theory
Sibajiban Bhattacharya 189
Psychologism in Indian Logical Theory
J. N. Mohanty 203
vi CONTENTS
A Speech-Act Model for Understanding Navya-Nyaya
Epistemology
Karl H. Potter 213
Some Epistemologically Misleading Expressions:
"Inference", and "Anumana", "Perception" and "Pratyaksa"
Douglas D. Daye 231
The Prabhakara Mima~sa Theory of Related Designation
Mark Siderits 253
Plato's Indian Barbers
Arindam Chakrabarti 299
Proper Names: Contemporary Philosophy and the Nyaya
J. L. Shaw 327
Awareness and Meaning in Navya-Nyaya
Bimal K. Matilal 373
Index 393
We dedicate this volume to
the memory of
Professor Kalidas Bhattacharya
who died suddenly
when the volume was in preparation
PREFACE
We are grateful to the authors who wrote papers specially for
this volume and kindly gave their permission for printing them
together. None of these papers appeared anywhere before.
Our special thanks are due to the first six authors who
kindly responded to our request and agreed to join this new
venture which we are calling 'comparative perspective' in ana
lytical philosophy. In the introductory essay certain salient
points from each paper have been noted only to show how 'com
parative perspective' may add to, and be integrated with, mod
ern philosophical discussion in the analytic tradition. Need
less to say, any mistake, possible mis-attribution or
misrepresentation of the views of the original authors of the
papers (appearing in the said introductory essay) is entirely
the responsibility of the author of that essay. The author
apologizes if there has been such unintentional misrepresenta
tion and insists that the readers should depend upon the orig
inal papers themselves for their own understanding. For typo
graphical problems it has not always been possible to use the
symbols originally used by the authors, but care has been
taken to use the proper substitute for each of them.
Bimal K. Matilal
ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: AN
INTRODUCTION
1.
The aim of this volume is to extend the horizon of philosophi
cal analysis as it is practiced today. If two different
streams of philosophical ideas that originated and developed
quite independently of each other are found to be grappling
with the same or similar problems and trying to find answers
to similar questions and puzzles, this fact is by itself
interesting enough for further exploration. Both contemporary
analytical philosophy and the classical Nyaya and Buddhist
tradition of India seem to be interested in the problems of
knowledge and perception, the varieties of meaning and refer
ence, the theory of inference and, the issue of psychologism.
We wish to bring together these two very different streams and
present them side by side if only to note, in the final analy
sis, their differences and contrasts. For it is also philo
sophically important to ponder why very similar puzzles evoke
different responses from different people.
We need to say very little to introduce a contemporary
problem, such as that of proper names, varieties and vagaries
of reference, syncategorematic words, and modalities. But
when such problems are raised in the context of classical
Indian tradition, one needs to devote a lot of time in
explaining the contexts of their origin and in providing the
background material to make them intelligible. Besides, mod
ern studies of classical Indian philosophical ideas often suf
fer from two disadvantages. First, the use of Sanskrit terms
in parentheses becomes indispensable to signal the fact that
these terms have acquired rather technical senses whereas
their suggested English equivalent may be neutral and non-com
mittal. It is expected that the reader should make allowance
for this flexibility. Second, recent exegetical writings on
Indian classical thought are often done in isolation and hence
it fails to reach the contemporary philosophic audience. The
resulting loss affects both sides. A non-Sanskritist finds a
serious modern exegesis of classical Nyaya doctrine opaque.
And if the exegesis is devoid of the depth of scholarship, it
becomes too shallow and hence too plain and trivial. In this
way a modern writer on the classical doctrine loses the vital
criticism of the modern philosophic mind and a modern
1
B. K. Matilal and J. L. Shaw (eds.). Analytical Philosophy in Comparative Perspective, 1-37.
© 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.