Neoplatonism and Paramādvaita

Comparative Philosophy 4 (2) (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

There has long been a debate on the possible   similarity between some forms of Indian and Greek idealistic monism ( Advaita and Neoplatonism ). After a basic historical introduction to the debate, the text proposes that Paramādvaita , also known as Kashmiri Shaivism , is a more suitable comparandum for Neoplatonism than any other form of Advaita , suggested in the debate. Paramādvaita ’s dynamic view of reality summarized in the terms prakāśa-vimarśa or unmeṣa-nimeṣa , corresponds quite precisely to the viewpoint of Neoplatonism , summarized in the similar bipolar terms such as prohodos-epistrophe . The context of the dynamic nature of reality doctrine is also quite similar ( svataḥsiddhatva, authypostasis ). My arguments are based on the texts of Plotinus and Proclus ( Neoplatonism ) and the texts of Abhinavagupta, Utpaladeva and Kṣemarāja ( Paramādvaita ) . Several parallel doctrines of both systems are further discussed: the doctrine of creative multilevel subjectivity , the doctrine of mutual omnipresence of all in all , the doctrine of creative multilevel speech , and some corresponding doctrines on aesthetic beauty and its important role in the Soul’s return towards its ultimate source. Some implications of the high degree of correspondence between both systems are considered at the end of the paper, for instance whether some similarities of compared systems might be explained on a structural basis, since both schools ware facing similar sceptical critique ( Mādhyamika, Hellenistic scepticism )

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Significance of Neoplatonism.R. Baine Harris (ed.) - 1976 - Albany: State University of New York Press.
The anatomy of neoplatonism.Antony C. Lloyd - 1990 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The concept of time in late Neoplatonism: texts with translation, introd. and notes.Samuel Sambursky - 1971 - Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Section of Humanities. Edited by Shlomo Pines.
Neoplatonism.Edward Moore - 2002 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Plotinus and neoplatonism.P. V. Pistorius - 1952 - Cambridge [Eng]: Bowes & Bowes.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-07-03

Downloads
64 (#227,353)

6 months
3 (#439,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (October):435-50.
On a confusion about a function of consciousness.Ned Block - 1995 - Brain and Behavioral Sciences 18 (2):227-–247.
Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology.Duncan Pritchard - 2012 - Journal of Philosophy 109 (3):247-279.
What is it like to be a bat?Thomas Nagel - 2004 - In Tim Crane & Katalin Farkas (eds.), Metaphysics: A Guide and Anthology. Oxford University Press.

View all 12 references / Add more references