21. Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Mimamsa on Knowledge and Language

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The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning.

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Further Reading

• G.P. Bhatt, The Basic Ways of Knowing: an In-Depth Study of Kumārila’s Contribution to Indian Epistemology (Delhi: 1989).

• F.X. Clooney, “Why the Veda Has No Author: Language as Ritual in Early Mīmāṃsā and Post-Modern Theology,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 55 (1987), 659-84.

• E. Frauwallner, Materialien zur ältesten Erkenntnislehre der Karmamīmāmṣā (Vienna: 1968).

• O. Gächter, Hermeneutics and Language in Pūrva Mīmāṃsā (Delhi: 1983).

• L. McCrea, “The Hierarchical Organization of Language in Mīmāṃsā Interpretive Theory,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 28 (2000), 429-59.

• J.A. Taber, “The Theory of the Sentence in Pūrva Mīmāṃsā and Western Philosophy,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 17 (1989), 407-30.

• J. Taber, A Hindu Critique of Buddhist Epistemology: Kumārila on Perception (London: 2005).

Thanks again to Elisa Freschi for help with this episode!

Comments

Tim on 26 June 2016

Interesting how much the

Interesting how much the epistemology smacks of Epicurus. Sense experience is reliable, it's the interpreter who needs fixing!

In reply to by Tim

Pratyush Pandey on 29 November 2016

more interesting

Even more interesting is this that this is the most orthodox hindu(indian) school..

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