The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450-1700 (The Oxford History of Philosophy) - Softcover

Ganeri, Jonardon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198701500 ISBN 13: 9780198701507

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

The Lost Age of Reason deals with a fascinating and rich episode in the history of philosophy, one from which those who are interested in the nature of modernity and its global origins have a great deal to learn. Early modernity in India consists in the formation of a new philosophical self, one which makes it possible meaningfully to conceive of oneself as engaging the ancient and the alien in conversation. The ancient texts are now not thought of as authorities to which one must defer, but regarded as the source of insight in the company of which one pursues the quest for truth. This new attitude implies a change in the conception of one's duties towards the past. After reconstructing the historical intellectual context in detail, and developing a suitable methodological framework, Ganeri reviews work on the concept of knowledge, the nature of evidence, the self, the nature of the categories, mathematics, realism, and a new language for philosophy. A study of early modern philosophy in India has much to teach us today - about the nature of modernity as such, about the reform of educational institutions and its relationship to creative research, and about cosmopolitan identities in circumstances of globalisation.

About this title

About the Author:

Jonardon Ganeri is a philosopher who draws upon Indian, European and Ango-American sources in his work. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He read Mathematics at Cambridge before commencing graduate studies in Philosophy at London and Oxford. He has been a Jacobsen Fellow in Philosophy at King's College London and a Spalding Fellow at Clare Hall Cambridge. As well as teaching at various Universities in Britain, he has held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania.

Review:

"[The Lost Age of Reason] is a book that Indologists and students of Indian philosophy should read with great interest and cannot afford to ignore."--Andrew J. Nicholson, Journal of the American Oriental Society

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0198701500
• ISBN 13: 9780198701507
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 284