The dialectic of knowledge and ignorance in advaita vedānta

Mohanty

pp. 97-105

in: John Drummond, James G. Hart (eds), The truthful and the good, Berlin, Springer, 1996

Abstract

One striking feature of Indian philosophers' concern with knowledge (jñāna)- especially in the Advaita Vedānta-is the way a theory of ignorance (ajñāna) is made to play a central role in theory of knowledge (analogously to the role theory of error plays in theory of truth). In this paper I will focus on this dialectic of knowledge and ignorance (as I shall call it), and will draw attention to some interesting consequences of this way of looking at things.