27. The Theory of Evolution: Īśvarakṛṣṇa’s Sāṃkhya-kārikā
The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind.
Themes:
Further Reading
• T.G. Mainkar (trans.), The Sāṃkhyakārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa with the Commentary of Gauḍapāda (Poona: 1972).
• J. Bronkhorst, “The Qualities of Sāṃkhya,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 38 (1994), 309-22.
• P. Chakravarti, Origin and Development of the Sāṃkhya System of Thought (New Delhi: 1975).
• M. Hulin, A History of Indian Literature VI.3: Sāṃkhya Literature (Wiesbaden: 1978).
• G.J. Larson, Classical Sāṃkhya: an Interpretation of its History and Meaning (Delhi: 1979).
• G.J. Larson and R.S. Bhattacharya (eds), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, vol. IV: Sāṃkhya, a Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy (Delhi: 1987).
• E. Frauwallner, “Die Erkenntnislehre des Klassischen Sāṃkhya-Systems,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 2 (1958), 84-139.
• A. Sen Gupta, Classical Sāṃkhya: a Critical Study (New Delhi: 1982).
• J.A.B. van Buitenen, “Studies in Sāṃkhya (I) (II) and (III),” Journal of the American Oriental Society 76 (1956), 153-7; 77 (1957), 15-25; and 77 (1957), 88-107.
• S.G.M. Weerasinghe, The Sāṅkhya Philosophy: a Critical Evaluation of its Origins and Development (Delhi: 1993).
Comments
One ! One excellent podcast !
Ah ha ha ha !
Thanks again Peter for a podcast which not only illuminated philosophy (and taught me much) but also had me chuckling along.
Brett
Bibliography
Hi,
Thanks for th podcast, great to listen about this subject in this format.
I'm currently studying the yoga sutras and Sankhya philosohpy is everywhere on that book.
I wonder if you can suggest what is the most accesible and recommended book from the biography, cause to be honest I don't know which of them is best to start.
Keep going with this iniciative, I greatly appreciatte your work.
First reading on Samkhya
I'd say one of the two books by Larson is a good place to start. Good luck, hope you find it as interesting as I did!
Will this get better?
Howdy,
I'd like this comment to be private, because I really appreciate your work on the overall series of The History of Philosophy and I don't want to insult you. Yet, I think you would want genuinely felt feedback.
I have been listening to your podcast since very close to the beginning. I have listened to most episodes several times. I was skeptical about the Islamic philosophy, but it turned out to be quite interesting until near the end. I have listened to all of the Indian Philosophy podcasts, and again usually a couple of times each. There does not seem to be anything to Indian philosophy other than appeals to authority. Is that just something in the earlier phases and maybe I can expect something meatier to come? I'll probably listen to a couple more of the Indian Philosophy podcasts and then just start skipping those weeks. I'll check back in the comments to see if any other listeners comment about this.
Have a wonderful day
Indian
Well, I'm not insulted for sure - I think the issue is more that the material is so different. I would suggest at least hanging in a few more episodes for Nyaya (coming up in a couple more episodes), since it is closer to what you might expect from philosophy (epistemology, justification, logic, etc). But the "appeal to authority" issue seems to me a bit of a red herring. Obviously you have that in many philosophical traditions - Platonism, Aristotelianism, medieval philosophy, etc. The question is whether you have genuine innovation within an authoritatively structured tradition, and it seems clear that we do here: think about the way that Sankara was attacked by other Vedantins for apparently going too far away from canonical Vedic teaching.
Appeals to Authority
I would like to add that I find the Samkhya philosophy inuitively compelling without any appeal to authority (APTA). I think that it is possible that philosophers added these APTAs to satisfy those who wanted such a mooring, but that they were not necessary nor sufficient in the philosophy itself. Still only speaking for myself, I have found through Yoga, including meditation, that the concept of Purusha being outside of the mind matches what I have already found.
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