The Context Principle of Meaning in Prabhakara Mimamsa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9214764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hari Shankar Prasad |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 317 |
| Publication date | 1994-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy East and West (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8221 • E-ISSN: 1529-1898 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1399597 |
| OpenAlex | W2332594459 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The contribution of MTmamsa to the philosophy of language is unique and immense. That is why it is often called Vakyasastra or methodology which investigates the nature of the sentence. This analytic characteristic is dominant throughout the system, because it shows the right path to truth and also makes us realize the truth. On the other hand, it is said, if in the pursuit of truth this methodology is either insufficiently known or not known at all, the truth will never be realized.1 The MTmamsa method of interpreting scriptures is imitated by other philosophic systems of India, so much so that the Advaita Vedanta epistemology for the empirical world is known after Kumarila,2 an exponent of MTmamsa. Further, MTmamsa is primarily concerned with the interpretation of the Vedic sentences,3 and mainly the action-oriented and ritualistic passages of the Vedas. Its conviction is that the underlying principle of the universe is activity, which creates a unitary force to maintain the universe with all its diversity in the form in which we see it today. This force, for all practical purposes, is a substitute for any intelligent controlling agent like god. This is the reason why MTmamsa professes a philosophy of action, an action which must be ethical in nature. This kind of conviction of MTmamsa makes it adopt an empirical world view4 in which human beings achieve the summum bonum, heaven (svarga), a state of unending and unsurpassed ecstatic pleasure (niratisaya prTti) that is the result of their own ethical actions.5 All this is possible only when we have the correct understanding of the Vedic sentences. But here we are not concerned about MTmamsa's ultimate
Archaeology · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · Sociology · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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