11–16 of 16 posts
This is perhaps a simplistic observation, but Bhartrihari’s linguistic idealism connects with how LLMs and their apparent intelligence is fundamentally language-driven. He would argue that is sufficient since our reality is fundamentally linguistic in nature: “ Bhartrihari tells us, ordinary language is a crystallization of something already implicit in reality. Reality itself is fundamentally linguistic, and what we…
The book The Word and the World: India's Contribution to the Study of Language by Bimal Krishna Matilal gives an overview of Bhartrhari's (and others) ideas - https://archive.org/details/wordandtheworldindiascontributio...
Amongst his works; Śatakatraya - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aatakatraya which consists of three 100 verses each on Niti(ethics/morality/law), Sringara(pleasure/love) and Vairagya(dispassion/renunciation) is better known. A good and easy translation is Three Hundred Verses: Musings on Life, Love and Renunciation by A N D Haksar published by Penguin.
This is perhaps a simplistic observation, but Bhartrihari’s linguistic idealism connects with how LLMs and their apparent intelligence is fundamentally language-driven. He would argue that is sufficient since our reality is fundamentally linguistic in nature: “ Bhartrihari tells us, ordinary language is a crystallization of something already implicit in reality. Reality itself is fundamentally linguistic, and what we…
Criticism: the title of the book is “Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India” yet the author of the article tries to shove South Asia everywhere.
[1] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/O7d... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/sHF... same edition (hardcover/ebook) [2] ToC https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/O7d... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/sHF... [3] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/O7d... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/sHF... [4] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/O7d... https://www.google.com/books/edition/Words_for_the_Heart/sHF...
Well written article, am curious to learn more about Bhartihari now. Criticism: the title of the book is “Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India” yet the author of the article tries to shove South Asia everywhere.
> Sanskrit's celebrated lexicon, the sheer enormity and precision of its vocabulary, together with the scope and centrality of its literatures and intellectual systems in aesthetics, philosophy, politics, medicine, and religion across southern Asia for millennia, put it at the center of the Treasury. [copied from book Introduction, p16]