Realisms Interlinked: Objects, Subjects, and Other Subjects [Hardcover]

This book brings together over 25 years of Arindam Chakrabarti's original research in philosophy on issues of epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind.

Organized under the three basic concepts of a thing out there in the world, the self who perceives it, and other subjects or selves, his work revolves around a set of realism links. Examining connections between metaphysical stances toward the world, selves, and universals, Chakrabarti engages with classical Indian and modern Western philosophical approaches to a number of live topics including the refutation of idealism; the question of the definability of truth, and the possibility of truths existing unknown to anyone; the existence of non-conceptual perception; and our knowledge of other minds. He additionally makes forays into fundamental questions regarding death, darkness, absence, and nothingness.

Along with conceptual clarification and progress towards alternative solutions to these substantial philosophical problems, Chakrabarti demonstrates the advantage of doing philosophy in a cosmopolitan fashion. Beginning with an analysis of the concept of a thing, and ending with an analysis of the concept of nothing,Realisms Interlinkedoffers a preview of a future metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind without borders.

[A] welcome presentation of a lot of Chakrabarti's often uniquely original work. This book is best treated as an organic whole, much better absorbed as an intellectual construction out of decades of sharp-eyed exploration of the wonders of two different traditions of philosophical thought. Philosophy East and West

This is a book of staggering erudition; it is broad in vision, metaphysically ambitious, and beautifully written & There is such a wealth of insight here, and such a wide-ranging discussion of the lc¶