History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China

HPI 33 - Standard Deductions - Nyaya on Reasoning

Gautama and his commentators tell us how to separate good inferences from bad ones.

HPI 32 - What You See Is What You Get - Nyaya on Perception

Nyāya philosophers explain how perception can bring us knowledge.

HPI 31 - Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire - Gautama’s Nyaya-Sutra

The Nyāya-Sūtra inaugurates a tradition of logical and epistemological analysis.

HPI 30 - Philipp Maas on Yoga

A leading expert on the founding text of Yoga tells us why, when, and by whom it was written.

HPI 29 - Practice Makes Perfect - Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra

Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.

HPI 28 - Who Wants to Live Forever? - Early Ayurvedic Medicine

Philosophical aspects of Ayurveda, focusing on the oldest surviving medical treatise, the Caraka-Samhita.

HPI 27 - The Theory of Evolution - Isvarakrsna’s Samkhya-karika

The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind.

HPI 26 - Francis Clooney on Vedanta

Francis Clooney joins us to discuss the religious and philosophical aspects of Vedānta.

HPI 25 - Communication Breakdown - Bhartrihari on Language

The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman.

HPI 24 - No Two Ways About It - Sankara and Advaita Vedanta

Śaṅkara and his “non-dual” (Advaita) Vedānta, which teaches that only brahman is real, and the world of experience and individual self are mere illusion.