School · 500 BCE–1700 CE
Classical Indian philosophy
Classical Indian philosophy comprises rival Veda-affirming and śramaṇa traditions whose arguments about knowledge, language, action, liberation, selfhood, and reality were developed through sūtras, commentaries, and public debate; it is a field, not a single doctrine.
Shared questions
- What warrants knowledge, and how can error be distinguished from successful cognition?
- How do action, interpretation, discipline, and metaphysical analysis contribute to liberation?
Internal disagreements
- Nyāya realism, Mīmāṃsā hermeneutics, Sāṃkhya dualism, Yoga practice, and Vedānta theories of Brahman disagree over the self, God, and Vedic authority.
Key texts
- Nyāya Sūtra · c. second century CE — Foundational aphorisms of the Nyāya tradition, conventionally attributed to Akṣapāda Gautama.
- Mīmāṃsā Sūtra · c. first centuries BCE–CE — Foundational text of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā attributed to Jaimini.