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This collection of articles and review essays, including many hard to find pieces, comprises the most important and fundamental studies of Indian logic and linguistics ever undertaken. Frits Staal is concerned with four basic questions: Are there universals of logic that transcend culture and time? Are there universals of language and linguistics? What is the nature of Indian logic? And what is the nature of Indian linguistics? By addressing these questions, Staal demonstrates that, contrary to the general assumption among Western philosophers, the classical philosophers of India were rationalists, attentive to arguments. They were in this respect unlike contemporary Western thinkers inspired by existentialism or hermeneutics, and like the ancient Chinese, Greeks, and many medieval European schoolmen, only—as Staal says—more so. Universals establishes that Asia's contributions are not only compatible with what has been produced in the West, but a necessary ingredient and an essential component of any future human science.
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The University of Chicago Press Chicago and
London
FRITS STAAL is professor of philosophy and South Asian languages at the University of California, Berkeley.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON © 1988 by Frits Staal Allrightsreserved. Published 1988 Printed in the United States of America 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Staal, Frits. Universals : studies in Indian logic and linguistics / J. Frits Staal. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Hindu logic. 2. Language and logic. 3. Universals (Philosophy) I. Title. BC25.S76 1988 87-23187 160'.954—dcl9 CIP ISBN 0-226-76999-2 (cloth); 0-226-77000-1 (paper)
Contents
Preface Introduction 1. Universals, Shadowy and Substantial 1 2. The Evidence from Indian Logic 12 3. The Evidence from Indian Linguistics 29 4. Seven Reviews 35 5. Conclusions 36 Bibliography
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PART i I N D I A N L O G I C
1. Correlations between Language and Logic in Indian Thought. 59 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 23 (1960): 109-22 2. Formal Structures in Indian Logic. 73 Synthese: An International Quarterly for the Logical arid Psychological Study of the Foundations of Science 12 (1960): 279-86 3. Means of Formalization in Indian and Western Logic. 81 Proceedings of the XHth International Congress of Philosophy, Florence 10 (1960): 221-27 4. The Theory of Definition in Indian Logic. Journal of the American Oriental Society 81 (1961): 122-26
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5. Contraposition in Indian Logic. 93 Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the I960 International Congress, Stanford (1962): 634-49 6. Negation and the Law of Contradiction in Indian Thought: A Comparative Study. 109 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 52-71 7. The Concept of paksa in Indian Logic. Journal of Indian Philosophy 2 (1973): 156-66
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PART ii I N D I A N LINGUISTICS
8. Euclid and Pänini. Philosophy East and West 15 (1965): 99-116
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9. A Method of Linguistic Description: The Order of Consonants according to Pänini. Language 38 (1962): 1-10
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10. Context-Sensitive Rules in Pänini. Foundations of Language 1 (1965): 63-72
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11. Pänini Tested by Fowler's Automaton. Journ