Workshop: Maṇḍana on Various Types of Commands

In this weeklong workshop, we will read, translate, and discuss Maṇḍana’s Vidhiviveka (“Discernment about Commands”), chapter 15. The key issue of the chapter is the Mīmāṃsā claim that there are several types of prescriptions (the originative prescription is the first one enjoining one to do something, the applicatory one adds hierarchically linked subsidiaries to the main one and so on). How can this be possible within Maṇḍana’s interpretation of commands as just statement of what is beneficial to one’s goals?

Participants: Elliot Stern (Philadelphia), Lawrence McCrea (Cornell), Andrew Ollett (Chicago), Parimal Patil (Harvard), Akane Saito (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Elisa Freschi (Toronto), and many others. We will also read Vācaspati’s commentary (Nyāyakaṇikā) on chapter 15 of the Vidhiviveka. 

If you would like to join, please contact Elisa Freschi, and she will share the working version of the edition with you.

This is an in-person workshop, but if you would like to join online, please use this Zoom link. Passcode: 951779