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Conference Announcement Theme: The Challenge of Postcolonial Philosophy in India Subtitle: Too Alien for Contemporary Philosophers, Too Modern for Sanskritists? Type: International Conference Institution: Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna Location: Vienna (Austria) Date: 28.–29.9.2017 __________________________________________________ The main goal of the conference consists in questioning the difficult reception of Indian post-independence philosophy inside and outside India, in particular related to the difficulties of the plurality of languages involved, and of its intermediate status. To begin with, one needs to define one's object. But what does it take for philosophy to be contemporary Indian philosophy? Can this be more than a particular geographical and temporal characterization? If so, what would this definition philosophically entail? Contemporary Indian philosophy is marked by its 'postcolonial' transformations: a widespread instruction in English focusing on 'Western' philosophy, but possibly reinterpreted in an Indian context, opposed to a traditional Sanskrit learning. This situation, inherited from the colonial time, is thus combined with an awareness of this gap and a reflection on the consequences of colonization on Indian philosophy, characterizing the 'post-colonial' era. This ambiguity and this hybridity of the post-colonial state of contemporary Indian philosophy makes its definition blurred and complex, which may be an important cause for the difficulties of its reception. We therefore attempt to address issues contributing to defining the state and problems of contemporary Indian philosophy (its internal difficulties), as well as some reasons for the insufficiency of its reception (its external obstacles), considering that the connection between these two levels, internal developments and external reception, contributes to locate the challenge of postcolonial philosophy in India. The following points describe some directions for reflections: - Colonial, Foreign Influences and Indian Philosophy - Linguistic and Cultural Pluralism in modes of philosophizing - Postcolonial 'hybridity' We invite participants to reflect on the status and problems of contemporary Indian philosophy (post-independence), on its recognition as philosophy and its specificities, due to its particular colonial history and internal diversity. We in particular want to highlight the transition from the colonial external influences to the postcolonial internal developments that contribute to characterize the cultural and linguistic plurality of Indian philosophical traditions. In so doing, we hope to contribute together to the international reception of contemporary Indian philosophy by connecting regional and intercultural approaches. Conference Programme Thursday, 28.09.2017 09.00 - 09.20 Salutations: Georg Stenger, Karin Preisendanz, Marion Rastelli Key Figures in Contemporary Indian Philosophy (History of Philosophy) 09.20 - 09.40 Adluri Raghuramaraju - Introduction to Contemporary Indian Philosophy 09.45 - 10.30 Marzenna Jakubczak - A Comparative Perspective of Hariharānanda Āraṇya (1869 - 1947), a Bengali Philosopher-Monk 10.30 - 11.15 Pawel Odyniec: Rethinking Advaita Within the Colonial Predicament: The Confrontative Philosophy of K. C. Bhattacharyya (1875 - 1949) 11.15 - 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 12.15 Purushottama Bilimoria - Indologism's Progenitors, Devourers and Critics: Hegel, Hacker, Radhakrishnan and J. L. Mehta 12.15 - 13.00 Daniel Raveh - Still in Dialogue: New Discoveries in Daya Krishna's Oeuvre 13.00 - 14.00 Lunch 14.00 - 14.45 Gur Livneh - The Challenge of Comparative Political Philosophy: "The Political" in the philosophies of Sri Aurobindo, Daya Krishna and J. N. Mohanty 14.45 - 15.30 Anna-Pya Sjödin - Conceptualizing Philosophical Tradition: A Reading of Wilhelm Halbfass, Daya Krishna and Jitendranath Mohanty 15.30 - 15.45 Coffee Break 15.45 - 16.30 Dor Miller - Reading Derrida with Daya Krishna 16.30 - 17.15 Adluri Raghuramaraju - Reexamining the Comparative Philosophy Between East and West: Deleuze, Guattari and Gandhi Friday, 29.09.2017 Where Is Indian Philosophy Going? (Politics of Philosophy) 09.00 - 10.20 Jay Garfield and Nalini Bhushan - Indian Nationalist Thought: Lala Lajpat Rai's Taxonomy and its Contemporary Relevance 10.20 - 11.05 Sharad Deshpande - In the Midst of Contemporary Indian Philosophy 11.05 - 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 12.15 Bina Gupta - Tradition (Sanskrit) and Modernity (English): A Spurious Choice for Indian Philosophers 12.15 - 13.00 Muzaffar Ali - Indian Philosophy Refunded on Ethics 13.00 - 14.00 Lunch 14.00 - 14.45 Bhagat Oinam - Trends of Philosophising in the Post-Independent India 14.45 - 15.30 Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad: Philosophy and Philology, Past and Future: On the History and Life of Ideas 15.30 - 15.45 Coffee Break 15.45 - 16.30 Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach: Postcolonial Representations of Indian Philosophy 16.30 - 17.15 Elise Coquereau - Politics of Addressing, Problems of Reception: To whom are Anglophone Indian Philosophers Speaking? 17.15 - 18.00 Round Table: How can we trigger more scholars to take advantage of contemporary Indian philosophy? Venue The Conference takes place at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Vienna. The conference venue is the Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG) at the Universitätsstraße 7 in Vienna. Address: University of Vienna Department of Philosophy Universitätsstr. 7 3rd Floor 1010 Vienna (Austria) Organisation Elise Coquereau, Elisa Freschi, Georg Stenger Website: http://philosophie.univie.ac.at/interkultphil/conference-the-challenge-of-postcolonial-philosophy-in-india/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
