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The Philosophy of Lokayata: A Review and Reconsideration. By Bijayananda Kar. Delhi: Motilal Banardsidass, 2013. Pp. 136. Rs. 295.
The paucity of classical sources concerning the Cärväka/Lokäyata school is mirrored by a scarcity of contemporary scholarship. On that note, this book is a welcome contribution. The subtitle of this book promises "a review and reconstruction." There is some review of classical and contemporary sources (although perhaps not quite enough); however, the bulk of the book is Kar's reconstruction of what he thinks the Cärväkas might have or should have said. I will follow Kar in using "Cärväka" and "Lokayata" interchangeably to refer to the classical Indian school usually taken to endorse materialism, atheism, hedonism, and/or skepticism.
Kar's book consists of an introduction and conclusion with six chapters on a variety of issues (knowledge, materialism, atheism, morality, the self, and socioindividual relationship). In the introduction, Kar explains the points where he thinks the Cärväkas ought to be reevaluated. After a brief review of classical sources including the Upanisads, Early Buddhist texts, and Cärväka philosophers such as Brhaspati, Purandara, and Jayaräsi, Kar sets out to challenge many of the received views. His first controversial (if somewhat puzzling) point is that the Cärväkas engage in "no wholesale condemnation of the Vedic source," but only of those parts that refer to trans-empirical phenomena (pp. 3-4). He also claims that the Cärväkas can't endorse the type of dogmatic metaphysical materialism they are usually taken to endorse, a claim he supports in more detail in the chapter on materialism. This illustrates the main claim...