Analytical Philosophy in Comparative Perspective: An Introduction

Abstract

The aim of this volume is to extend the horizon of philosophical analysis as it is practiced today. If two different streams of philosophical ideas that originated and developed quite independently of each other are found to be grappling with the same or similar problems and trying to find answers to similar questions and puzzles, this fact is by itself interesting enough for further exploration. Both contemporary analytical philosophy and the classical Nyāya and Buddhist tradition of India seem to be interested in the problems of knowledge and perception, the varieties of meaning and reference, the theory of inference and, the issue of psychologism. We wish to bring together these two very different streams and present them side by side if only to note, in the final analysis, their differences and contrasts. For it is also philosophically important to ponder why very similar puzzles evoke different responses from different people.