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Universals

Studies in Indian Logic and Linguistics

This collection of articles and review essays, including many hard to find pieces, comprises the most important and fundamental studies of Indian logic and linguistics ever undertaken.

Frits Staal is concerned with four basic questions: Are there universals of logic that transcend culture and time? Are there universals of language and linguistics? What is the nature of Indian logic? And what is the nature of Indian linguistics? By addressing these questions, Staal demonstrates that, contrary to the general assumption among Western philosophers, the classical philosophers of India were rationalists, attentive to arguments. They were in this respect unlike contemporary Western thinkers inspired by existentialism or hermeneutics, and like the ancient Chinese, Greeks, and many medieval European schoolmen, only—as Staal says—more so. Universals establishes that Asia’s contributions are not only compatible with what has been produced in the West, but a necessary ingredient and an essential component of any future human science.

278 pages | 6.00 x 9.00 | © 1988

Asian Studies: South Asia

Language and Linguistics: Formal Logic and Computational Linguistics, Philosophy of Language

Philosophy: Logic and Philosophy of Language

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. Universals, Shadowy and Substantial
2. The Evidence from Indian Logic
3. The Evidence from Indian Linguistics
4. Seven Reviews
5. Conclusions
Bibliography

Part I - Indian Logic
1. Correlations between Language and Logic in Indian Thought
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 23 (1960): 109-22
2. Formal Structures in Indian Logic
Synthese: An International Quarterly for the Logical and Psychological Study of the Foundations of Science 12 (1960): 279-86
3. Means of Formalization in Indian and Western Logic
Proceedings of the XIIth International Congress of Philosophy, Florence 10 (1960): 221-27
4. The Theory of Definition in Indian Logic
Journal of the American Oriental Society 81 (1961): 122-26
5. Contraposition in Indian Logic
Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the 1960 International Congress, Stanford (1962): 634-49
6. Negation and the Law of Contradiction in Indian Thought: A Comparative Study
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 52-71
7. The Concept of paksa in Indian Logic
Journal of Indian Philosophy 2 (1973): 156-66

Part II - Indian Linguistics
8. Euclid and Panini
Philosophy East and West 15 (1965): 99-116
9. A Method of Linguistic Description: The Order of Consonants according to Panini
Language 38 (1962): 1-10
10. Context-Sensitive Rules in Panini
Foundations of Language 1 (1965): 63-72
11. Panini Tested by Fowler’s Automaton
Journal of the American Oriental Society 86 (1966): 206-9
12. Syntactic and Semantic Relations to Panini
With Paul Kiparsky. Foundations of Language 5 (1969): 83-117

Part III - Reviews
13. D. H. H. Ingalls, Materials for the Study of Navya-Nyaya Logic
Indo-Iranian Journal 4 (1960): 68-73
14. E. R. Streekrishna Sarma, Manikana: A Navya-Nyaya Manual
Journal of the American Oriental Society 82 (1962): 237-41
15. B. Shefts, Grammatical Method in Panini: His Treatment of Sanskrit Present Stems
Language 39 (1963): 483-88
16. H. Scharfe, Die Logik im Mahabhasya
Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (1963): 252-56
17. G. Cardona, Studies in Indian Grammarians I: The Method of Description Reflected in the Sivasutras
Language 46 (1970): 502-7
18. B. K. Matilal, The Navya-nyaya Doctrine of Negation: The Semantics and Ontology of Negative Statements in Navya-Nyaya Philosophy
Indo-Iranian Journal 13 (1971): 199-205
19. B. K. Matilal, Epistemology, Logic and Grammar in Indian Philosophical Analysis
Indo-Iranian Journal 19 (1977): 108-14
Index

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