Peter Adamson, "Classical Indian Philosophy" (Oxford UP, 2020)
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Hello and welcome back to New Books in Hindu Studies. I'm your host, Dr. Raj Balkrung. Today I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Peter Adamson on a very interesting publication called Classical Indian Philosophy. Even more interesting is the subtitle A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume five. Peter, welcome to the program.
Hi there. Thanks for having me, Raj. Nice to be on the show.
So I think we need to dive into that subtitle and tell folks where it comes from.
Yeah, this is a good place to start. This is part of a series, as one could probably infer from the fact that it's volume five. And the series is actually based on, of all things, a podcast. This is kind of Something that began with a podcast, now ending in a podcast as I talk to you about this. And the podcast has been running, that is my podcast, has been running since two thousand ten. So I'm coming up on ten years of doing it. And the podcast is called The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. The idea being to cover the whole history of philosophy. from the beginning to now, maybe, and also in all cultures. So in theory, at least the idea would be the whole history of philosophy presented in a fairly detailed way, but also in a way that's accessible to a wide audience.
Um so originally my idea was to start with ancient Greek philosophy or even the pre-Socratics, so the first ancient Greek philosophers. And move through the history of philosophy. sort of in the style of a history podcast rather than in the style of a philosophy podcast. In other words, uh for example, when I finished Aristotle, I didn't skip to Augustine or Aquinas or whatever. I went on to the students of Aristotle. And I have tried to go through the whole history of philosophy without leaving anything out. So um there's actually two different feeds. That so people would have to subscribe to them separately if they're listening to it as a podcast feed. It's all on the same website. And in the uh original feed that's only covered ancient philosophy, philosophy in the Islamic world, medieval philosophy, Byzantine philosophy, and now I'm doing Renaissance philosophy.
And that I'm coming up on 350 episodes while we're recording this. I may have gotten there by the time you release this. And then there's another about 70 episodes on Indian philosophy. And we've got fifty episodes on Africana philosophy.
So not at all an ambitious undertaking, is this? No, it's a sort of minor hobby.
Exactly.
So so you're endeavoring to cover uh the totality of um uh philosophical human thought cross culturally since the beginning of recorded time in a way that's accessible to the lay person.
Yeah, except that actually for the Africana episodes, uh for the for that series, we actually have an episode on prehistoric Africa.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:14
2
What inspired the creation of the “History of Philosophy without Any Gaps” podcast?
7:14–18:30
3
How did the podcast evolve into the book *Classical Indian Philosophy*?
18:30–28:52
4
What organizational strategy did you use to structure the Indian‑philosophy volume?
28:52–40:29
5
Why did you choose a genre‑based rather than orthodox/heterodox classification?
40:29–50:45
6
Who is the intended audience for this book and how does it balance depth and accessibility?
50:45–1:00:44
7
What surprised you most about the scope and themes of Indian philosophy?
1:00:44–1:11:23
8
How do narrative and story function in Indian philosophical texts like the Upaniṣads and the Bhagavad‑Gītā?
1:11:23–1:26:07
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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