The Collected Essays of Bimal Krishna Matilal, vol. 1: Mind, Language and World.

• Author: Taber, John
• Position: Book review

The Collected Essays of Bimal Krishna Matilal, Vol. 1: Mind, Language and World. Edited by JONARDON GANERI. New Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xxxiv + 458.

This is the first of two volumes containing essays of B. K. Matilal that originally appeared in scattered anthologies and journals and have not already been assembled in other collections. A few of the chapters are essays Matilal was working on when he died; they appear here for the first time. The companion volume to this collection, Ethics and Epics, was also published by Oxford in 2002. This volume includes an introductory essay by the editor Jonardon Ganeri, in which he offers an overview and assessment of Matilal's achievement and a survey of the topics covered by the essays; it is followed by a helpful bibliography that identifies the provenance of the essays, not only of this two-volume collection of Matilal's writings, but also of two other anthologies of his work (Logic, Language and Reality: An Introduction to Indian Philosophical Studies [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985] and The Word and the World: India's Contribution to the Study of Language [Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990]). The essays reflect the extraordinary range of Matilal's interests. Part One contains five pieces on logic, mysticism, and skepticism; Part Two contains seven on Nyaya epistemology and metaphysics; Part Three, six essays on Buddhist thought, including two on Madhyamaka; Part Four, four essays on Sanskrit philosophy of language; and Part Five, eight articles on the methodology of the study of Indian thought, including discussions of such issues as Orientalism, Neo-Hinduism, and Indian Nationalism. Though most of these writings were passed over by previous anthologies, their quality is not disappointing. The volume includes a good general index; it is unfortunately marred by an annoying number of typos and misprints.

2. K. Matilal is often seen as having had a programmatic purpose in his study of Indian philosophy. He "sought to bring classical India into the philosophical mainstream," "... to open the conversation between classical Indian philosophers and their contemporary analytical colleagues ... pinpointing the topics where Indian theory can be expected to make a substantial contribution." He attempted "to create the means whereby different philosophers of different ages and societies may converse." More specifically, by emphasizing the importance of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language in classical Indian philosophy, he tried to dispel "the popular idea that Indian philosophy is primarily spiritual and intuitive, in contrast to the rational West." All of these statements are taken from Ganeri's introduction, yet there is no lack of statements by Matilal himself to support such impressions.

The problem with this kind of assessment of his work is that, if it is correct, then one must judge that Matilal certainly failed. Indian philosophy has not been brought...