Jonathan Duquette (University of Oxford): The failure of ontology: Non-dualism, deconstructionism  and the problem of time  in medieval India

In this presentation, I wish to highlight one of the classical forms of scholarly debate acknowledged in the Indian philosophical tradition – vitaṇḍā, a form of debate in which the objective is to refute the opponent’s thesis while refraining from asserting one’s own. I explore the use of this method in a terse philosophical work authored by one of the greatest dialecticians in the tradition of pure non-dualism (Advaita Vedānta) in medieval India: the Edible Pieces of Refutation (Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya) by Śrīharṣa. I will focus on his engagement of the logico-epistemological school of Nyāya concerning the problem of time, and discuss how his underlying commitment to the metaphysics of pure non-dualism is intimately tied to what may be termed his epistemological deconstructionism.