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This book opens the door, for all lovers of philosophy, to the latest and most sophisticated discussions of classical Indian thought. Classical Indian Metaphysics has been designed so that it can be read by the student who knows little about classical Indian traditions, as well as the specialist in Indian philosophy. Classical Indian Metaphysics is an introduction to classical Indian metaphysics in general, with a special focus on New Logic and its response to idealist dialectical attacks. It comprises two wide-ranging introductory chapters covering the earliest periods of Indian thought, two chapters discussing metaphysical arguments within late classical debates, and a final chapter providing translations of key passages from late texts.
Largely unnoticed in textbook accounts of classical Indian philosophic schools is Nyāya's advocacy of yoga and its alliance with teachings of the Yoga-sūtra. Yoga and Nyāya differ sharply in how nature is viewed, its components and causal laws. But on the side of subjectivity, purusa and atman, there is more convergence than difference. The two world views have distinct theories of action, cognition, and the body, but concerning the subject or self himself or herself, including God or the īsvara (and argumentation so directed), the conceptions advanced are surprisingly similar. Moreover, the traditions converge in the commen taries of the tenth-century philosopher Vācaspati Miśra who often shows influence from one or the other direction in his Yoga-sūtra and Nyāya-sūtra commentaries. The key bridge ideas are expressed in the Nyāya-sūtra literature under a substantial and remarkable stretch of sutras in the fourth chapter devoted to yoga practice and liberating self knowledge: NyS 4.2.38-51. Among other jewels, here we find an implicit assimilation of philosophic debate as a yoga practice.