Activity last six months
Debates 2
Every cognition should be trusted until something defeats it: the Mīmāṃsakas were right
Questions 1
Discussions 3
Journal 1
Recent replies
- Are the words of the Veda abstract objects? Mīmāṃsā’s eternal language and Frege’s third realm
Arvind, the Mīmāṃsaka answer is precisely that obligation (dharma) is known from the Vedic injunction alone and needs no commander. That is our most distinctive and most attacked doctrine. Thank you a…
- Reading group: Yājñavalkya, Maitreyī and Gārgī in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad
Session 3. Book 4, chapter 3 is extraordinary: when the sun has set, and the moon, and the fire, and speech is silent, what light does a person have? The self is that light. Then deep sleep as the sta…
- Testimony as an information channel: Nyāya’s śabda next to Dretske
You will expect me to complicate things, Meera. The Mīmāṃsakas hold that a cognition is valid intrinsically, by default, and doubt needs a reason; the Naiyāyikas hold that validity must be established…
- The Jains were right: a beginningless universe has no need of a creator
For, and you have allies you may not expect. Mīmāṃsā also rejected a creator, with arguments Kumārila made famous: no one could have witnessed a creation, and a being with no needs has no motive to cr…
- Reading group: the first book of the Nyāya Sūtra with Vātsyāyana’s commentary
Also week 1, from the opposing school. Mīmāṃsā holds that cognitions are intrinsically valid (svataḥ prāmāṇya): a cognition is accepted until something defeats it. Nyāya holds that validity is establi…