The volume of the Project on the History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization aim at discovering the main aspects of India`s heritage and present them in an interrelated way. These volumes, in spite of their unitary look, recognise the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The present volume on Advaita Vedanta consists of three sections: the first one covers classical Advaita; the second ne examines the impact of Advaita on contemporary Indian Philosophy; and the third one gives an account of Advaita in vernaculars. There are two dimensions in Advaita. While the empirical dimension known as the vyavaharika shows Advaita is a rigorous, systematic philosophy, the trans-empirical dimension known as the paramarthika brings out its mystical outlook. Advaita holds that there is no incompatibility between the empirical and the trans-empirical; because Brahman which is trans-empirical is the ground of the empirical; and there cannot by any contradiction or incompatibility between the ground and the grounded. The book will be of interest to scholars of Advaita philosophy and general readers alike.
D.P. CHATTOPADHYAYA taught philosophy at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. He is the founder Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi. He is one of the propounders of interdisciplinary studies in the country with his wide knowledge on philosophy, political theory, economics, history, and science. Currently he is Chairman of the Centre for Studies in Civilizations, and General Editor of this Project. O.P. Jaggi, an eminent medical scientist, is former professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi. He is the author of History of Science, Technology and Medicine in India, a fifteen volume project, which is regarded as the authoritative work on the subject. He has been a member of the National Commission on Compilation of the History of Sciences in India, and Chairman of its Modern Period Committee.
|