Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volume 9 (2009)
: 1566–5399
This work consists of five chapters each of which explores a particular facet
of a larger theme, that of the place of knowledge in Indian theories of liberation.
Classical Indian philosophy is distinctive for the widespread (though not univer-
sal) acceptance one finds there of the notion that the highest end – liberation from
the wheel of rebirth and the suffering that attends such sam . sāric existence – is
attained through cognition of some sort. We even find the claim in the Bhagavad
Gı̄tā that devotion to God leads to liberation by producing the requisite liberating
knowledge in the devotee. An investigation of the soteriological significance of
knowledge in Indian philosophy may prove worthwhile for those seeking a way
out of the impasse generated by the faith-reason dichotomy in modern Western
thought.
The first chapter concerns the epistemology and semantics that stem from
what Ram-Prasad calls Jainism’s ‘multiplist metaphysics’, the view that reality
is such as to warrant true contradictions. It is widely held that this position
represents an expression of the Jain commitment to non-violence (the practice of
which is central to attaining liberation on their view). The idea is that refuting
the position of one’s opponent is itself an unjustifiable form of violence, since it
rests on the false assumption that two contradictory views cannot both be true.
The difficulty lies in articulating this in a way that avoids the trap of relativism
about truth. Ram-Prasad has interesting things to say about how Jain efforts to
accomplish this lead to the higher-order difficulty of avoiding relativism about
the nature of the truth-predicate: what can Jaina philosophers say when their
opponent insists that contradictions cannot be true? Ram-Prasad concedes that
the resolution he has in mind goes beyond anything that Jainas say or even might
want to say. It is nonetheless a suggestive and significant response to Jain thought.
The second chapter explores the variety of views Indian philosophers held
on the question how we come to be aware of our own cognitions. Some held
that when we cognize a blue patch, we are aware only of the blue and not of
the cognition whereby we come to be aware of the blue; awareness of the fact of
cognizing comes only subsequent to the cognition. Others held that cognitions
are self-luminous–a cognition illuminates not just its object but itself as well. Ram-
Prasad discusses five distinct views on this matter. He then explores some ways
Mark Siderits, September 13, 2009. If you would like to cite this article, please do so as follows:
Mark Siderits, ‘Review of Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge,’ Ars Disputandi [http://www.
ArsDisputandi.org] 9 (2009), 125–128.
Mark Siderits: Review of Indian Philosophy and the Consequences of Knowledge