HALBFASS, Wilhelm. Nordheim, Niedersachsen 11.5.1940 — Bryn Mawr, PA 25.5.2000. German Indologist and Philosopher in the U.S.A. After 20 years in the U.S.A. still German citizen. Son of Willi and Ilse-Marie H. Studies of philosophy, Indology (Waldschmidt) and classical philology 1959-61 & 1962-66 at Göttingen, 1961-62 at Vienna. Ph.D. 1966 Göttingen (in Western Philosophy), in 19?? habilitation at Hamburg in Indology. In 1966-70 wissenschaftlicher Assistent at Indologisches Seminar, Göttingen. From 1970 Assistant Professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, from 1972 Associate Professor of Philosophy there. In 1973-74 visiting Lecturer at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, from 1974 Associate Professor of Indian Philosophy there and from 1982 full Professor. In 1978-79 visiting Professor at Münster, 1981-82 at Hamburg, and 1988 at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo/Yokohama. Married Helga, two daughters. Died of a brain haemorrhage.
Halbfass was a specialist of Indian nature philosophy and epistemology, especially Vaiśeṣika, of comparative philosophy, and of Western philosophy of 17th and 18th centuries.
Publications: Diss. Descartes’ Frage nach der Existenz der Welt. Untersuchung über die cartesianische Denkpraxis unf Metaphysik. 258 p. Monogr. zur philos. Forsch. 51. Meisenheim a.G. 1968.
– Zur Theorie der Kastenordnung in der indischen Philosophie. 44 p. N.G.A.W. 1975:9. Göttingen 1976.
– Indien und Europa: Perspektiven ihrer geistlichen Begegnung. 550 p. Basel 1981; much rev. English version: India and Europe: an Essay in Understanding. 16+604 p. Albany, N.Y. 1988, rev. Indian ed. Delhi 1990.
– Studien in Kumārila und Śaṅkara. 6+140 p. StII Monogr. 9. Reinbeck 1982.
– Tradition and reflection: exploration in Indian thought. 8+425 p. Albany, N.Y. 1991
– On being and what there is: classical Vaiśeṣika and the history of Indian Ontology. 8+303 p. Albany, N.Y. 1992.
– Edited: Philology and Confrontation. Paul Hacker on Traditional and Modern Vedānta. 369 p. Albany 1995.
– Karma und Wiedergeburt im indischen Denken. 342 p. Kreuzlingen 2000.
– A number of articles (45 in 1967-92) on Indian (esp. Vaiśeṣika) and Western philosophy.
Sources: D.G.K. 1980; Dir. Am. Sch. 8th ed. 4, 1982; Curriculum vitae and bibliography c. 1992/93; F.X. Clooney, Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 13, 2000, 41; *F. Squarzini RSO 74, 2000, 199-205; *J. Taber, JIPh 28, 2000, 425-427; personal knowledge 1984/96; briefly Wikipedia; photo in McGetchin et al. 2004.
Bibliography and evaluations in E. Franco & K. Preisendanz (eds.), Beyond Orientalism. The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Science and the Humanities 59. Amsterdam 1997, and Expanding and Merging Horizons. Contributions to South Asian and Cross-Cultural Studies in Commemoration of Wilhelm Halbfass. Öst. Akad. der Wiss-, Philos.-hist. Klasse, Denkschriften 351. Vienna 2007.
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