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Alex Watson

Ashoka University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

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I work on both the History of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Philology

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2 Books
19 Papers
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Papers by Alex Watson

The Nyāyamañjarī’s Arguments Against the Existence of God: Translation and Commentary

Journal of Hindu Studies , 2023

The treatment of the question of God's existence in Jayanta's Nyāyamañjarī falls into two parts. ... more The treatment of the question of God's existence in Jayanta's Nyāyamañjarī falls into two parts. In the first, an atheist opponent (pūrvapakṣin) argues against God on the grounds that no means of knowledge attest to his existence. It is that part that is translated below. Our translation of the second part (the siddhānta section) is due to be published in a future volume of this same journal. There Jayanta begins to speak in his own Naiyāyika voice, and answers all of the objections that the atheist has articulated in the first part. Jayanta wrote the Nyāyamañjarī at the end of the 9th century in Kashmir. For background information about Jayanta, his life and his works, see Dezső (2005, pp.15-19) and Graheli (2015, pp.3-13). The Nyāyamañjarī is structured according to the 16 topics of discussion (padārtha) listed in Nyāyasūtra 1.1.1. The first two of these are means of knowledge (pramāṇ a) and objects of knowledge (prameya), and the text is heavily weighted towards these two: the first six chapters out of 12 deal with the pramāṇ as, the next three with the prameyas, and the remaining 14 padārthas are squeezed into the final three chapters.

Consciousness as the Fundamental Reality of the Universe: A Master Argument for Buddhist Idealism

Cross-Cultural Approaches to Consciousness: Mind, Nature, and Ultimate Reality, 2023

Sciences in the Centre for University Core. His research interests focus on metaphysics, Buddhist... more Sciences in the Centre for University Core. His research interests focus on metaphysics, Buddhist philosophy, and comparative philosophy. He has published on metaphysics, specifically on causation, emergence, and material constitution.

Pratyabhijñā: Recognition’s Nature, Cause and Object. Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of a Portion of the Nyāyamañjarī

Essays in Honour of Raffaele Torella, 2022

Jayanta on the Question of God’s Existence

A Road Less Traveled: Felicitation Volume in Honour of John Taber, 2021

Self and Not-self in Indian Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. ‘Self and Not-Self in Indian Philosophy’ in Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro (eds.) Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, Volume 4, pp. 2252-2262. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell., 2021

Atheistic Arguments in Indian Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. ‘Atheistic Arguments in Indian Philosophy’ in Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro (eds.) Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, Volume 1, pp. 170-176. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell., 2021

In this encyclopaedia entry I give a summary of the stage that atheistic argumentation had reache... more In this encyclopaedia entry I give a summary of the stage that atheistic argumentation had reached in India by the end of the 9th century. Atheistic arguments involved (1) pointing to logical fallacies in the inference(s) that Naiyayikas used to establish the existence of God, and (2) highlighting certain unresolvable difficulties concerning God’s nature.

Four Mīmāṃsā Views Concerning the Self's Perception of Itself

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2020

The article concerns a mediaeval Indian debate over whether, and if so how, we can know that a se... more The article concerns a mediaeval Indian debate over whether, and if so how, we can know that a self (ātman) exists, understood here as a subject of cognition (jñātṛ) that outlives individual cognitions, being their common substrate. A passage that has not yet been translated from Sanskrit into a European language, from Jayanta Bhaṭṭa’s Nyāyamañjarī (c. 890 CE), ‘Blossoms of Reasoning’, is examined. This rich passage reveals something not yet noted in secondary literature, namely that Mīmāṃsakas advanced four different models of what happens when the self perceives itself. The article clarifies the differences between the four, and the historical and logical relationships between them. It also hypothesizes pressures that constituted the need for the creation of the newer views, i.e. perceived problems with the earlier views, which the proponents of the newer views saw themselves as overcoming.

Further Thoughts on Rāmakaṇṭha’s Relationship to Earlier Positions in the Buddhist-Brāhmaṇical Ātman debate

Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions: Essays in Honour of Alexis G.J.S. Sanderson, 2020

Self or No-Self? The Ātman Debate in Classical Indian Philosophy

Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics, 2017

‘Buddhist Philosophy of Language: Annotated Translation of the Apoha Section of the Nyāyamañjarī’ by Alex Watson and Kei Kataoka

Patrick McAllister (ed.) Reading Bhaṭṭa Jayanta on Buddhist Nominalism, 2017

Contrasting Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Buddhist Explanations Of Attention

Philosophy East and West, 2018

In contemporary Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind, “attention” is a burgeoning field, with... more In contemporary Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind, “attention” is a burgeoning field, with ever-increasing amounts of empirical research and philosophical analysis being directed toward it. In this article I make a first attempt to contrast how Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas and Buddhists would address some aspects of attention that are discussed in that literature. The sources of what I attribute to “Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas” are the sections dealing with the manas (“internal organ”, “organ of attention”) in the Nyāyabhāṣya, Nyāyamañjarī, and Praśastapādabhāṣya. The words “Buddhist” and “Buddhism” in this essay refer specifically to the Sautrāntika Buddhism of Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (350–430 CE). A comparison involving a later phase of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika thinking on this matter, a later phase of Buddhism, or a different branch of Buddhism may well yield different results.
Section I lays out the ontological postulates that Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas and Buddhists deemed necessary for the explanation of attention. Section II looks at three arguments that the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas gave for their principal postulate, the manas, and three corresponding Buddhist responses to these arguments. Sections III and IV look at contrasting Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Buddhist explanations of, respectively, “shifts of attention” and “competition for attention.” Sections V and VI consider whether the Buddhist model can adequately account for voluntary or endogenous attention, and whether the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika model can adequately account for involuntary or exogenous attention. In the closing section I identify three things that are commonly attributed to attention and that may seem impossible in both the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and the Buddhist models; I show how the two Indian models can account for them.

India’s past, philology, and classical Indian philosophy

Seminar, 2015

Conscience, Guilt: Nietzsche, Heidegger and Psychotherapy

Journal of The Society for Existential Analysis, 2014

The paper introduces first Nietzsche and then Heidegger’s views on conscience and guilt. It next... more The paper introduces first Nietzsche and then Heidegger’s views on conscience and guilt. It next identifies the ways in which their stances are opposed. Finally, it argues that from a psychotherapeutic perspective, it is the Nietzschean ideas that are more likely to be fertile directions of thought for clients.

Who Am I? The Self/Subject According to Psychoanalytic Theory.

Sage Open, 2014

The article argues that the importation into psychoanalytic theory of the terms “self” and “subje... more The article argues that the importation into psychoanalytic theory of the terms “self” and “subject” is neither true to Freud’s intentions, nor necessary, nor helpful. Having observed how Freud undermined these concepts in both his Topographical Model and Structural Model, the article turns to the position of Ogden. Two of his contributions masterfully deconstruct the concept of “the subject” through a selection of positions advocated by Freud, Klein, and Winnicott. But he then revitalizes the concept in his own way, claiming it to be “central” and “irreducible.” This article argues for a more radical stance than Ogden’s; whereas Ogden is reductionist with regard to the subject, this article argues for eliminativism.

The Self as a Dynamic Constant. Middle Ground Between a Naiyāyika Eternal Self-Substance and a Buddhist Stream of Consciousness-Moments

Journal of Indian Philosophy 42, 1 pp. 173-193, 2014

The paper gives an account of Rāmakaṇṭha's (950-1000) contribution to the Buddhist-Brāhmaṇical de... more The paper gives an account of Rāmakaṇṭha's (950-1000) contribution to the Buddhist-Brāhmaṇical debate about the existence or non-existence of a self, by demonstrating how he carves out middle ground between the two protagonists in that debate. First three points of divergence between the Brāhmaṅical (specifically Naiyāyika) and the Buddhist conceptions of subjectivity are identified. These take the form of Buddhist denials of, or re-explanations of (1) the self as the unitary essence of the individual, (2) the self as the substance to which mental properties belong, (3) the self as the agent of both physical actions and cognitions. The difference of Rāmakaṇṭha's position from both Nyāya and Buddhism is then elaborated. He posits a self, but not one that is an eternally unchanging substance, nor one that is anything other than consciousness. Hence his difference from Nyāya. He falls with Buddhism in holding that consciousness does not require anything other than itself to inhere in, but departs from Buddhism in holding that consciousness is not momentary but enduring. The guiding metaphor here is light, but light considered as a dynamic, qualitatively unchanging repetition of the action of illumination.

Light as an Analogy for Cognition in Buddhist Idealism (Vijñānavāda)

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 42, 2 pp. 401-421, 2014

Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +B... more Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media Dordrecht. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".

Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha's Elaboration of Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana), and How it Differs from Dharmakīrti's Exposition of the Concept

Journal of Indian philosophy, 2010

The article considers what happened to the Buddhist concept of selfawareness (svasam : vedana) wh... more The article considers what happened to the Buddhist concept of selfawareness (svasam : vedana) when it was appropriated by Ś aiva Siddhānta. The first section observes how it was turned against Buddhism by being used to attack the momentariness of consciousenss and to establish its permanence. The second section examines how self-awareness differs from I-cognition (ahampratyaya). The third section examines the difference between the kind of self-awareness elaborated by Rāmakan : t : ha ('reflexive awareness') and a kind elaborated by Dharmakīrti ('intentional self-awareness'). It is then pointed out that Dharmakīrti avails himself not only of intentional self-awareness but also of reflexive awareness. Some remarks on the relationship between these two strands of Dharmakīrtian Buddhism are offered. The conclusion points out that although self-awareness occurs in Buddhism as inextricably linked with anātmavāda, the doctrine of no-self, and sākāravāda, the view that the forms we perceive belong not to external objects but to consciousness, it is used by Rāmakan : t : ha to refute both of these views. An appendix addresses the problem of how precisely to interpret Dharmakīrti's contention that conceptual cognition is non-conceptual in its reflexive awareness of itself.

Bhaṭṭa Jayanta’s Refutation of the Yogācāra Buddhist Doctrine of Vijñānavāda: Annotated Translation and Analysis, by Alex Watson and Kei Kataoka

南アジア古典学 South Asian Classical Studies, 2010

Rāmakaṇṭha’s Concept of Unchanging Cognition (nityajñāna): Influence from Buddhism, Sāṃkhya and Vedānta.

From Vasubandhu to Caitanya. Studies in Indian Philosophy and Its Textual History., 2010

Drafts by Alex Watson

Contrasting Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Buddhist Explanations of Attention

In contemporary Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind, ‘attention’ is a burgeoning field, with... more In contemporary Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind, ‘attention’ is a burgeoning field, with ever increasing amounts of empirical research and philosophical analysis being directed towards it in recent years. In this paper I make a first attempt to contrast how Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas and Buddhists would address some aspects of attention that are discussed in that literature.

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