Study of Nītimañjarī, work on Hindu ethics by Dyādviveda, 15th cent.

Exhaustive study on the philosophy of R̥gveda, Hindu canonical text.

Compilation of textual references from Vedic and Jaina religious literature on religious, philosophical and cultural aspects of non-violence (Ahimsa); Prakrit and Sanskrit text with Hindi translation.

The present paper is about three concepts which are crucially involved in Gaṅgeśa's interpretation of a Mīmāṃsā argument against the well-known design inference of the existence of God in Nyāya, namely the concepts “cognition” (jñāna), “certitude” (niścaya) and “doubt” (saṃśaya). According to Maheśa Chandra, the author of the Navya-Nyāya manual Brief Notes on the Modern Nyāya System of Philosophy and its Technical Terms, certitude and doubt are the two varieties of cognition. He illustrates the verbal expression of certitudes by (...) means of declaratives and the verbal expression of doubts by means of interrogatives (functioning as polar or alternative questions). He notes also that different credence levels might be associated with the alternatives involved in a speaker’s doubt. A biassed question in the form of a tag interrogative might be an appropriate way to express such a doubt. In Western logic the idea to treat declaratives and interrogatives on a par, which is anticipated by the Navya-Naiyāyikas' use of the unifying concept of “cognition”, goes back to Frege’s distinction between the semantic content (the “thought”) of a sentence and its force and it was recently elaborated by Ciardelli, Farkas, Groenendijk, Roelofsen et al., the founders of a new branch in logic called “inquisitive logic”. In the present paper we will discuss Maheśa Chandra's succinct exposition of the Navya-Naiyāyikas' innovative approach from the perspective of this type of logic. As an offshoot of our analysis we will try to elucidate Gaṅgeśa's apologetic concerns about the well-known design inference of the existence of God in Nyāya and its liability to be vitiated by a dubious upādhi. (shrink)

The northwestern dialects of Albanian stretch from Plava and Gucia in the North to Mat in the South, from Tivari and Ulqini in the West to Nikaj-Mërtur and Pukë in the East. This group of dialects includes the dialects of Kelmendi, Hoti, Kastrati, Shkreli, Buza e Uji, Koplik, Grizha, Lohe, Reci, Rrjolli, Shala, Shosh, Pulti, of Postriba, Shllak, Temal, Shkodra, Buna Bank, Drini Bank and Zadrima. The areas where the northwestern dialects of Albanian are spoken, as evidenced by the discoveries (...) made so far, were inhabited very early. The great Ardian tribe lived in these places. Moving specifically to the studies of Northwestern Albanian dialects, we see their origin at the beginning of the 20th century, although their data did not present scientific certainty. The Albanian lexicographers of the Northern region Frang Bardhi, Nikollë Gazulli and Benedikt Dema also played a fundamental role in the creation of the old Albanian literature, but the invaluable help started by Buzuku, Budi and Bogdani should not be left out. (shrink)