Identity as Reasoned Choice: A South Asian Perspective on The Reach and Resources of Public and Practical Reason in Shaping Individual Identities

A companion volume to Jonardon Ganeri’s popular textbook, Philosophy in Classical India: The Proper Work of Reason, this new book surveys in a lively and accessible style the nature of practical and public reason in India. It provides what is missing in Amartya Sen’s widely admired The Argumentative Indian: detailed discussion of the thinkers—dissenters and heretics, as well as mainstream voices—whose astonishing ideas so enrich contemporary discussion.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction: The Reach and Resources of Reason PART I: PUBLIC REASON PROMOTED 1. An Ideal of Public Reason Public reason in the Questions of Milinda An ideal of public reason in the Nyaya-sutra 2. Ancient Indian Logic as a Theory of Case-Based Reasoning A model of reasoning in the Nyaya-sutra The theory transformed Retrieving the ancient case-based model 3. Neutrality: a Theory From the Time of Asoka A Buddhist treatise on public reason: the Elements of Dialogue Eight stances in a dialogue The 'way forward' and the 'way back' 4. Local Norms: the Priority of the Particular Rules versus cases Three models of particulars as standards Particulars as paradigms in the Nyaya-sutra Particulars as prototypes in the Ritual Sutras PART II: PRACTICAL REASON RESOURCED 5. The Critic Within Multiple Hinduisms A dissenting voice Meeting reason with reason Evidence, expertise and assent Religion and reason 6. Adapt and Substitute The hermeneutics of ritual Ethics in the Hindu canon The reason of sages Adaptive reasoning from paradigms 7. Model Humans and Moral Instincts Persons as paradigms of exemplary conduct Ethical dilemmas: the 'case' The heart's approval: moral instinct PART III: DISSENT 8. Implied Voices of Dissent The paradox of inquiry Inquiry as adjudication The challenge reformulated in Sa?kara 9. Can One Seek to Answer any Question? Srihar?a On questioning: the pragmatics of interrogative dialogue The prior knowledge argument Against aiming The longing for knowledge PART IV: IDENTITY, FOUND OR FASHIONED? 10. On the Formation of Self Spiritual exercises and the aesthetic analogy Philosophy as medicine Plutarch and the Buddhists: returning oneself to the present A life complete at every moment Taming the self Philosophy and the ends of life 11. Problems of Self and Identity Reincarnation and personal identity Higher and lower selves Bad thoughts and conscience No self? Being true to your individual self 12. Identity and Illusions about the Self Speaking about the self Polestar and compass: two modes of practical reason The ethics of self-deception and the reach of reason Cognitive stories 13. "What You Are You Do Not See, What You See is Your Shadow" The philosophical double The double in Mauni's fiction Self to self Inhabiting an identity PART V: IDENTITY & THE MODERN INTELLECTUAL 14. Interpreting Intellectual India Questions of method Objectivity Immersion 15. An Exemplary Indian Intellectual Bimal Krishna Matilal A conversation among equals A common ground? 16. India and the Shaping of Global Intellectual Culture Covert borrowings Other routes of influence Concluding Summary Bibliography

About the Author :
Jonardon Ganeri writes on Indian philosophical theory in relation to the analytical tradition, on early South Asian modernity, and on conceptions of the human subject.

Review :
"Drawing on premodern answers to rethink postmodern questions, and doing so with a philosopher's rigor, a non-philosopher's readability, and enormously creative thinking, Jonardon Ganeri does two important things at once. He suggests how to move forward into the future on the thorniest problems of self-identification, while revealing the depths of India's intellectual past and the resources it can offer for that task." -Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University "Recent philosophical writing on the subject of identity. though often focused on distant parts of the globe, has failed to tap the philosophical traditions outside the West in the analyses it provides.  This ambitious book admirably overcomes that limitation and locates in the tradition of Indian philosophy a basis for the idea that our identities are not given to us but are rationally chosen. Its range of historical reference --from Manu to Matilal-- is impressive and presented with confidence and verve. It will add rigour and detail and historical depth to a concept ('identity') that still remains relatively indisciplined in its deployment in the study of politics and culture." - Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Committee on Global Thought,  Columbia University, New York. Laudable both for its academic and philosophical rigor and the extent to which the traditions discussed in this book are deeply in play among individuals and groups interested in Eastern spirituality, I should hope that Ganeri is suitably commended for successfully meeting the criteria of both sets of readers - though I can't imagine how pleased the reader in the centre of this particular Venn diagram might be. Taking Amartya Sen’s claim about India’s long traditions of debate and tolerance of diversity as his starting point, this engaging and thought-provoking book explores a number of specific examples of argumentation and public reasoning in traditional Indian sources. Yet Ganeri’s approach is far more rigorous, examining a wide variety of sources, including: Nya¯ya texts on logic, philosophical narratives in the Upanis?ads, Nika¯yas, and the Maha¯bha¯rata, and S´abara’s commentary on the Mi¯ma¯m?sa¯ Su¯tra. Throughout, Ganeri highlights the ways Indian sources make reasoned arguments, linking pre-modern examples of public and practical reason to current debates about politics and identity in India. One of Ganeri’s central arguments is that India’s religious traditions can sustain secular and democratic ideals. Such claims have much to offer recent debates about secularism and the role of religion in the public sphere.