The Vienna summer school on the History and Cultures of Asia is offering an intensive one-week introduction to the theory of knowledge in South Asian philosophical traditions.

The summer school will introduce participants to the epistemological theory used in Sanskrit texts. It is aimed at anyone who has an interest in reading scientific Sanskrit works that refer to epistemological concepts. Participants will be able to work intensively with established experts based at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna, centres renowned internationally for the study of South Asian philosophy of knowledge.

The course will focus on validity (prāmāṇya) and the instruments of knowledge (pramāṇas), including perception, inferential reasoning, and verbal knowledge. The participants will be introduced to the main theories of different schools, including Nyāya, Vedānta, Buddhist, and Jaina thought. Lectures by experts on individual subjects will be combined with focused readings of relevant texts in the original Sanskrit.