Frits Staal

Johan Fredrik " Frits " Staal ( born November 3, 1930 in Amsterdam, † February 19, 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand ) was a Dutch philosopher, linguist, Indologist and renowned researcher on ancient philosophy, in his research among other things with it the comparison of Advaita Vedanta with Neoplatonism addressed.

Life

Study and teaching

Staal, a son of the architect Jan Frederik Staal, studied post-school math, science and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He then continued his studies in the subjects of Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Banaras Hindu University ( BHU ), where he completed his doctorate in 1957 with a dissertation on Sanskrit in Chennai from.

After that, he was from 1958 to 1962. Than lecturer of Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and worked at the same time from 1961 to 1962 Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of Indian Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania

After he returned to the Netherlands and took over 1962-1967 professor of general and comparative philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.

In 1967 he attracted with his essay Zinvolle s zinloze philosophy in the literary magazine De Gids stir: In it, he suggested that only verifiable statements form a meaningful philosophy. Statements such as Martin Heidegger's " The Nothing destroyed " are not examinable or verifiable and therefore pointless. His views expressed in this article views on European and especially German and Dutch philosopher led to violent clashes with representatives of non-analytic philosophy as J. Aler.

1968 he was appointed professor of philosophy and South Asian Languages ​​at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught until his retirement in 1991. He was also a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) and the Universities of Bangkok, Kyoto, Paris, Peradeniya, Stanford, Sussex, Tokyo and Georgetown University operates.

In 1975 he undertook as head of a group of scientists with a twelve-day research trip to Kerala for documentation of Vedic Agnicayana (fire sacrifice). The local examination results he published in two major textbooks and in a documentary entitled Altar of Fire.

In 2003 he finally took over for some time as a visiting professor at the University of Leiden.

The focus of his work and views

In his research, he dealt among other things with the comparison of Advaita Vedanta with Neoplatonism. In addition to his teaching activities, Staal still busy with studies of Vedic rituals and mantras and undertook field studies on rituals and mysticism. Further investigations were on the logic in ancient philosophy and Indian philosophy, the grammar of the Sanskrit and Greek and Vedic Geometry focus of his work.

Methodologically Staal was convinced that the entire universe is open to rational investigation. It explained:

A recurring theme was that areas like the mysticism of rituals open to rational, scientific studies were not like other aspects of the universe. According to Staal and artificial distinctions between "East" and "West" in the natural sciences and the humanities prevented a fruitful investigation of human life. His study of the written by Panini Sanskrit grammar entitled Ashtadhyayi undermined the previously assumed superiority of the Greek classics in the field of scientific analysis. From this he drew the conclusion that logic, linguistics and other sciences are not properties of specific culture, but rather universal characteristics of humanity.

Publications

  • Advaita and Neoplatonism, 1961
  • Nambudiri Veda Recitation, 1961
  • Word Order in Sanskrit and Universal Grammar, 1967
  • A Reader on the Sanskrit gram Arian, 1972
  • Exploring Mysticism. A Methodological Essay, 1975
  • The Science of Ritual, 1982
  • AGNI - The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, 3 volumes, 1983
  • The Stamps of Jammu and Kashmir, 1983
  • Over Zin s Onzin, 1986
  • Universals. Studies in Indian Logic and Linguistics, Chicago 1988
  • Een Wijsgeer in het Oosten. Op reis door de Java Kalimantan, 1988
  • Rules Without Meaning. Ritual, Mantras and the Human Sciences, 1989
  • Jouer avec le feu. Pratique et theory you rituel vedique, 1990
  • Concepts of Science in Europe and Asia, 1993
  • Mantras in between Fire and Water. Reflections on a Balinese Rite, 1995
  • Drie bergen en zeven rivieren: Essays, 2004
  • Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, 2008
  • The authority of the Vedas: a correspondence between AC Bhaktivedanta Swami and Dr. JF Staal, Hamburg 1972
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