In his deeply personal yet academically rigorous book, The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhagavad Gita, Jeremy Engels takes up the task of describing and critiquing the quintessential U.S. American philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Though much ink has been spilled over these two philosophers, there are two features of Engels approach to their description and critique that make it unique when compared with other books that delve into the history of Indian philosophy’s influence on (...) these American philosophers. Engels’ purpose is not simply to recount the history, but rather to explicate Emerson and Whitman’s philosophies in light of that history in a way that makes them relevant to... (shrink)

We cannot directly perceive and experience objects of words such as “ apūrva ” “ devatā ,” and “ svarga ,” while objects of words such as “cow” and “horse” are perceptible. Therefore in the Indian linguistic context, some assert that there are two categories of words. However, a grammarian philosopher Bhartṛhari (450 CE) in the second book of his Vākyapadīya , introduces a verse stating that there is no difference between them. Other Indian thinkers as well deal with (...) this issue in various contexts. This paper aims at exploring the ideas expressed in Bhartṛhari’s verse and the related arguments found in other treatises of different schools. It consists of discussions of the followingt: (1) Bhartṛhari’s Vākyapadīya 2.119 and its commentarial texts; (2) Kumārila’s Criticism; (3) The Nyāya context; (4) The Sāṃkhya and the Buddhist context; (5) Related grammatical passages and the background of the Vākyapadīya 2.119; and (6) Conclusion. (shrink)