Causality and Its Application: Samkhya, Bauddha and Nyaya is not only a commentary on the views of classical Indian philosophers, but also contains explanations of concepts which are indispensable for understanding metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, among many other things. This book deals with a range of questions, such as whether the material cause contains the effect in its subtle form, whether causality can be defined in terms of efficacy, whether causal conditions are related to each other and whether they can be classified into types. It also explains the relation between the concepts of event, action, moment and causality.
Regarding epistemological issues related to causality, this book focuses on sources of knowledge, such as perception, inference and verbal testimony. Since this book suggests solutions to certain problems of knowledge, including the perception of a physical object, the relation of inferential cognition to its premises, the nature of atomistic and holistic understanding of the meaning of a sentence, it will throw further light on contemporary epistemology, philosophy of language and logic. Hence it will be useful not only for understanding Indian philosophy, but also for solving some contemporary western problems. It will be of value for comparative philosophers, Indologists and Sanskritists.
About the Author:
Jaysankar Lal Shaw, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, had his education at Calcutta University and received his Ph.D. at Rice University, Houston, Texas. He taught at Jadavpur University, Calcutta, at the University of Alabama, and was an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii. In 1985, he jointly edited analytical Philosophy in Comparative perspective, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Holland. In 1998, his book Cognition of Cognition: A Commentary on Pandit Visvabandhu was published by the Ramaksrihna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta. In 2003, his books The Nyaya on Meaning: A Commentary on Pandit Visvabandhu, and Some Logical Problems Concerning existence were published by Punthi Pustak. Recently his monograph on Swami Vivekananda As A Philosopher was published by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.
He has also published in international journals and anthologies over 60 papers on topics such as meaning, subject and predicate, negation, belief, knowledge, higher order cognition number, existence, causality, freedom and harmony. He has presented approximately 80 papers on comparative philosophy at conferences in New Zealand, Australia, India, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Holland, and the United States. He has also directed orientation courses on comparative philosophy in several countries.
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