1. Begin at the End: Introduction to Indian Philosophy

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In this introduction to the series, Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri propose that Indian philosophy was primarily a way of life and search for the highest good. 

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Further Reading

• J. Ganeri, “Introduction” to C. Carlisle and J. Ganeri (eds), Philosophy as Therapeia (Cambridge: 2010).
• J. Ganeri, “Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from the Buddha to Tagore,” in M. Chase, S. Clark and M. McGhee (eds.), Philosophy as a Way of Life: Ancients and Moderns (Oxford: 2013).
• P. Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault (Oxford: 1995).
• A. Kuzminski, “Pyrrhonism and Madhyamaka,” Philosophy East and West 27 (2007), 482–511.

NB: For reading suggestions on Indian philosophy in general see the page for the whole series of podcasts.

Comments

Alexander Johnson on 1 October 2018

Milinda Panha

I'm not up to here yet, but did you cover Milinda Panha (Questions from King Menander) in these episodes?  I ask as i didn't see him in the timeline (though admittedly the timeline seems to be a bit out of date).  If you didn't, I was just curious if you considered it and chose not to, or if it didn't even cross your mind

In reply to by Alexander Johnson

Peter Adamson on 1 October 2018

Milinda Panha

Yes, we did, it's just there is no one episode named after it - we use it as a source for the episodes on early Buddhism (and the famous chariot example comes up numerous times throughout the series!).

Rafsan on 16 January 2019

Very good initiative

Very good initiative

Bhaskar Iyer on 19 March 2019

adding another resource on Hinduism

http://www.avsrinivasan.com/

Dr. A. V. Srinivasan is another scholar based in USA who has been giving lectures on Hinduism. You can find lot of free youtube videos in the lectures link on his webpage. 

Keep up the good work. 

 

ankitha on 25 March 2019

Good intro!

I found your series via Kit Patrick's HistoryOfIndia podcast. 



Very interesting work. Thanks.

Ravi P Reddy on 13 August 2020

Errors in MP3 Tags

Love the podcasts.  Please correct the errors in the MP3 tags which are creating errors when I try to play the files in sequence.  I corrected my downloaded copy by using MP3 Tag editor but other users may not have the tools.

In reply to by Ravi P Reddy

Peter Adamson on 13 August 2020

MP3 tags

Thanks, glad you like the series. Can you please elaborate on the technical problem? When I upload the episodes I always tag the episode number and I have never heard of anyone else having this issue before. I'm not sure what else I could do in terms of tagging the mp3's that I am not already doing.

Krishna Kumar on 20 September 2020

Indian Philosophers

Greetings!

Interested in reading & knowing about Indian Philosophers

Aditya Singh Bais on 14 January 2022

Thumbnails at youtube

Hey Peter, few days ago I encountered a youtube channel of history of philosophy, I guess it's yours. If yes then I wanted to say.

I just wanted to tell what if you start putting the same thumbnails (you have put here on each episode), because youtube generally works on the algorithm of title & thumbnail so it might help a little to increase the reach of your podcast (changing of thumbnail may also work for older uploaded video)

In reply to by Aditya Singh Bais

Peter Adamson on 14 January 2022

YouTube

Oh thanks- actually I never set up a YouTube channel for the podcast so maybe someone else did this? Is it the one at this link that you mean?

This is hilarious because it has 1.7K subscribers and I didn't even know it existed!

In reply to by Peter Adamson

Tarun G on 26 August 2022

YouTube channel official or not

Hi Prof. Adamson! So is that YouTube channel unofficial? It's remarkable how the people running it promptly post every episode there—including your Don't Think For Yourself book preview! I do, however, prefer listening from the site directly—for references, navigability, timelines, etc. It's harder to find specific playlists or episodes on the YouTube channel, actually: there's no in-channel search bar for some reason, and the playlists are just the two RSS feeds. Still, I suppose it's for those who prefer listening on YouTube.

In reply to by Tarun G

Peter Adamson on 27 August 2022

YouTube

Right, it is unofficial - I wouldn't know how to set up an automatic channel like that. But it is great that someone did it, the more listeners the better!

Tarun G on 26 August 2022

HOPWAG quiz

Is there an India or Africana quiz? Just learnt of the 100 episodes HOPWAG quiz from a few years ago, and I couldn't find it on the site. But I'd love to see a quiz for the second feed too—not right away, but maybe later down the road, after ancient China series.

In reply to by Tarun G

Peter Adamson on 27 August 2022

Quiz

I actually cooled on the idea of the quizzes when it struck me that any really substantive question could just be googled, so it was too easy to cheat. But maybe I should bring it back and use the honor system - was kind of a fun idea!

In reply to by Peter Adamson

Tarun G on 27 August 2022

Cheat-proof quizzing

Here's an idea for the VERY long term then: HOPWAG quiz hosted on something like Khan Academy or similar multiple-choice quiz platform, and video-certified on something like Schoolhouse.world. Quizlet might work too, since there are resources like CORE-econ that host their quizzes there. I mention Schoolhouse because their video certifications for Khan Academy quizzes involve recording one's screen and face, and reasoning aloud as one works through the test. That video is then peer-reviewed according to a rubric for safety, accuracy, and integrity. This is a BIG project for HOPWAG but if Khan Academy decides to tackle global philosophy someday I hope they look at HOPWAG! (Their founder Sal Khan is a HUGE fan of world philosophies, especially in fusion philosophy between East and West traditions. He's a philosopher outside academia philosophy, in many ways.)

Maria on 5 March 2024

First few episodes unpublished on Spotify?

Hey, big fan of the project and your style!

One quick remark: I listen to the podcasts on Spotify, and I'd like to start with the Indian philosophy series. However, I noticed that, at least on Spotify, the first few episodes recently became unpublished (as of now, HPI 06 is the oldest there). As they are still up here I don't suppose that was intended. Just letting you know :)

In reply to by Maria

Peter Adamson on 6 March 2024

Spotify

Yes someone else mentioned this to me; it might be that there is a maximum level of episodes that can be on Spotify in one series, and they make older ones invisible one by one as new ones are added. This is also true on Apple podcasts unless you subscribe to the feed. But you shouldn't run into the problem on the RSS feed itself:

https://hopwag2.podbean.com/

Or of course you can just stream direct from here on the site:

https://www.historyofphilosophy.net/series/classical-indian-philosophy

Thanks for listening!

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