Eberhard Guhe, "An Indian Theory of Defeasible Reasoning: The Doctrine of Upādhi in the Upādhidarpaṇa" (Harvard UP, 2022)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to New Books in Philosophy, a channel on the New Books Network. I'm Malcolm Keating. Today we'll be talking to Eberhard Guhe, author of an Indian Theory of Defeasible Reasoning, The Doctrine of Upadi in the Upadi Darbana, published in 2022 by Harvard University Press. A note about this conversation, due to some technical difficulties between Singapore, where I'm located, and China, where Eberhard is, we're going to be doing something. a little bit unusual. I've recorded my questions ahead of time, sent them over to Eberhard, and he answered, sent them over to me. So with that little technical note, let's get started. Your book is a translation of an anonymous text written by an Indian philosopher focusing on logic and epistemology.
Let's start with the big picture. What is the Upadi Darpana and why did you think it was important to translate it into English? We'll talk about the U Pati in detail, but here's a chance to give a first gloss.
The Upadidarpana is a Sanskrit work which probably dates from the fourteenth century. Only one manuscript of the text has been preserved, and it is available in the Bandaka Oriental Research Institute in Pune. The author is unknown. The title Padidarpana means something like a mirror of the associate condition. Associate condition is my translation of the Sanskrit word party. And the word mirror, which is my translation of the Sanskrit word darpana, is probably meant to suggest that the Upadidarpana provides a very precise explication of the concept of the Upadi, similar to a mirror image. Upadi is a key concept of the theory of inference in Indian logic, especially in the works of logicians affiliated with a school of philosophy in ancient India called Nyaya.
Yaya can be tentatively translated as logic. Although it should be noted that the adherents of this school, the Nayai Kaz, were not only interested in logic, but The school to which the Upadidarpana belongs is the successor of the old Nyaya school. It is called Navyanyaya, that is new logic. The Upali Darpana is an early Navyanyaya treatise. It probably predates Gangesha's Tatvachintamani, which became seminal for the later development of the school. Inesh Chandra Bhatacharya mentions the Upadidarpana in his encyclopedia History of Navyanyaya and Mithila dating from the nineteen fifties. And in the nineteen seventies, Erich Frauweiner notes in one of his monographs that That it would be important to have an edition and a translation of the Upadidharpana.
in order to promote our understanding of the early stages of the development of Navya. My book which contains the first published edition and translation of the Upadi Darpana is an attempt to fill this academic void. However, the Upati Darpana is more than just a piece of jigsaw in the history of Navyanyaya. It abounds in logically interesting ideas which deserve to be brought to the attention of present day logicians. The doctrine of the Upadi is in effect a theory of defeasible reasoning, and as such it is a precursor of a vibrant area of research in Western philosophy and in AI. Some other ingenious insights of the author of the Upadidarpana are related to property theories, especially property adaptations of well founded and non well founded set theories.
A logically very intriguing aspect of the Upadidarpana is the author's attempt to define all candidate parties by means of a general defining characteristic in Sanskrit Samanyalakshana. Which is a property of itself. By advocating a non well founded property concept, he breaks a taboo in Yaya, according to which self dependence. is denigrated as a kind of absurdity. No such discussion concerning the problem of foundation in the Navy logic of property and location is to be found in the section on Upadi in Gangesha's Tatva Chintamani.
How did you come to be interested in Indian philosophy in general and in nyaya more specifically?
I became interested in Indian philosophy when I was studying at the University of Münster in Germany. I was enrolled in an MA program with Indology as a major and English literature and philosophy as minors.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:57
2
What is the Upadi Darpana and why is translating it important?
4:57–22:47
3
How does the Upadi concept function as a defeater in Indian defeasible reasoning?
22:47–30:28
4
Why did Eberhard Guhe become interested in Indian logic and Nyāya?
30:28–43:48
5
What are the core ideas of Nyāya and Navya‑Nyāya that underlie the Upadi theory?
43:48–1:11:40
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