Essays on Indian philosophy traditional and modern

This collection of essays by Professor J N Mohanty on Indian Philosophy and related topics, brought together in a volume for the first time, provides us a vignette into his writings in this area over a forty year span. They 'chart.. . a sort of intellectual autobiography'. But they do more than that: the 27 essays unwittingly trace the development of thinking and studious reflections on a range of issues and problems that have occupied among the best minds in philosophy, East or West. Part I brings together various writings on problems in metaphysics, epistemology, and language, along with thoughtful treatments of notions such as experience, self, consciousness, doubt, tradition and modernity. Part II collects essays written during the exciting though turbulent years following India's Independence, and they survey issues in social ethics, reform activities, and religion variously in the works of Aurobindo, Gandhi, Vinobha and Rammohun Roy. Part III comprises essays that treat of the encounter between phenomenology and philosophy, between Indian and Western philosophy, and it does this through an incisive analysis of some major concerns of philosophy, anywhere. The collection ends with some ruminations on the future of Indian philosophy. Those keen on keeping abreast with the 'other' interests and equally analytical reflections of one of the finest minds in contemporary phenomenology and philosophical currents, will find in these essays an invigorating, if not also a challenging, thrust. The editor's lengthy introduction followed by the author's own prologue set the scene for a stimulating reading. The volume is designed also to supplement Professor Mohanty's book-length works in the teaching of Indian and comparative philosophy.