The Instability of Reason: Śrīharṣa on the Foundations of Epistemology

In premodern south Asia, epistemology (prama?asastra)--the study of knowledge and the methods of acquiring it--was rarely construed as a purely theoretical enterprise.It was a discipline intended to serve practical purposes.This approach to epistemology is found in the philosophical tradition called Nyaya.The defenders of this tradition, the Naiyayikas, took Nyaya to be a science of rational inquiry that could assist practitioners of other sciences like economics and government in realizing their distinctive practical aims.These thinkers were committed to Nyaya rationalism: the view that rational inquiry can help us discover all practically important truths about ourselves and the world.Though this view was popular in premodern South Asia, it wasn't without its critics.In this monograph, Nilanjan Das focuses on one such critic of Nyaya rationalism: Srihar?a (12th century CE).Srihar?a agreed with the Naiyayikas that liberation (mok?a or apavarga), i.e., complete freedom from suffering,