[INDOLOGY] Claus Oetke

[Jan E.M. Houben]

Very sorry to learn of the untimely passing away of Prof. Claus Oetke of
whom I have lively memories since the last World Sanskrit Conference in
Australia (the one in Melbourne) and several other occasions. His numerous
contributions to Indian philosophy, to Philosophy and to philosophical
argumentation are unforgettable. Condolences to his family and friends.
Jan Houben

On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 at 02:12, Brendan S. Gillon, Prof. via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Thank you Eli for bringing this sad news to our attention. Claus is not
> someone to whom I immediately took, but over the years grew to
> appreciate both him and his ideas. I am very sad to learn of his death.
>
> Brendan
>
> On 2020-03-25 3:47 p.m., Eli Franco via INDOLOGY wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear List members,
> >
> > I am sad to inform you of the untimely death of Claus Oetke in an
> > accident that happened in Costa Rica, where he and his wife Cynthia
> > lived for the
> > last few years. This happened already last December, but I saw no
> > notice of it, neither here nor in the German Indology list.
> >
> > A short obituary can be found at
> >
> https://www.su.se/asia/in-memory-of-professor-claus-oetke-1947-2019-1.481872
> >
> >
> > Claus was a prolific writer. Some of his publications are available
> > online at
> > https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claus_Oetke
> >
> > His masterpiece was no doubt the monumental “‚Ich’ und das Ich:
> > Analytische Untersuchungen zur buddhistisch-brahmanischen
> > Ātmankontroverse” (1988). In this book, he applied Strawson’s theory
> > of person to the analysis of the concepts of ātman and anātman in the
> > Pali Canon and extensively analyzed the proofs of ātman in the
> > brahmanical philosophical traditions. J.W. de Jong, not renowned for
> > his over-generous compliments, stated in his review that Oetke’s work
> > was the most important book ever written on the subject. This
> > evaluation probably still stands.
> > Claus published numerous monographs and articles, mostly on Indian
> > philosophy and dialectics, both of the Buddhist and Brahmanical
> > traditions. Of special interest are his "Zur Methode der Analyse
> > philosophischer Sutratexte: Die Pramā󠆜ṇa Passagen der Nyayasῡtren"
> > (1991) and several papers on Nāgārjuna, which unfortunately did not
> > crystalize into a full-length monograph. Unlike many Madhyamaka
> > specialists he maintained that Madhyamaka as presented in the writings
> > of Nāgārjuna holds a clear metaphysical position (namely, that from
> > the point of view of absolute reality, empirical reality or everyday
> > practice does not exist).
> >
> > Claus also had an unusual gift for languages. Next to the languages of
> > Buddhism (Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese; for a reason that I do
> > not recall, he refused to learn Japanese), he mastered modern Indian
> > languages such as Hindi, Urdu and Marathi, and a large number of
> > European and other languages. We once counted them and arrived at
> > twenty-seven or twenty-nine that he knew reasonably well — we set
> > the bar at being able to read newspapers: they included, for example,
> > Basque, Turkish and  Swahili.
> >
> > For all his eccentricities, he will be greatly missed.
> >
> --
>
> Brendan S. Gillon                       email: brendan.gillon at mcgill.ca
> Department of Linguistics
> McGill University                       tel.:  001 514 398 4868
> 1085, Avenue Docteur-Penfield
> Montreal, Quebec                        fax.:  001 514 398 7088
> H3A 1A7  CANADA
>
> webpage: http://webpages.mcgill.ca/staff/group3/bgillo/web/
>
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-- 

*Jan E.M. Houben*

Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology

*Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite*

École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)

*Sciences historiques et philologiques *

*johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu <johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>*

*https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
<https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*


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