Alexander Piatigorsky

Alexander Piatigorsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Моисе́евич Пятиго́рский, born 1929) is a Russian philosopher and scholar of Buddhism and Indian philosophy.

He taught at the Moscow State University until 1974, and thenceforth at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he later became the Professor of the History of South Asia.

In his early years he collaborated with Yuri Lotman and Merab Mamardashvili, amongst others, and wrote a number of articles on semiotics. He also wrote the first ever Russian - Tamil dictionary. Since then, he has published books on Buddhist Philosophy, Phenomenology and myth, and Freemasonry, as well as several novels in Russian. He is the subject of 'Philosopher Escaped' (2005) a documentary film directed by Uldis Tirons.

He is reputed for rejecting traditional academic jargon, for supporting the principle that people should publish 'as little as possible' on the grounds that it interupts their thinking and for his highly colourful lectures, pacing up and down the lecture room with no notes.

Works

• Пятигорский А. М., Рудин С. Тамильско-русский словарь. — М., 1960 (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Материалы по истории индийской философии. — М., 1962 (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky, D. Zilberman The Emergence of Semiotics in India (1976)
• Пятигорский А. М., Мамардашвили М. К. Символ и сознание. Метафизические рассуждения о сознании, символике и языке. — Иерусалим, 1982 (reprinted М., 1997) (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky Buddhist Studies: Ancient and Modern (1983)
• A. Piatigorsky The Buddhist philosophy of thought. — Totowa, N. J., 1984
• A. Piatigorsky Mythological Deliberations. — L., 1993
• Пятигорский А. М. Избранные труды. — М., 1996 (In Russian)
• A. Piatigorsky Who’s Afraid of Freemasons? The Phenomenon of Freemasonry. — L., 1997
• A. Piatigorsky The Bhagavat Gita (Element Classic of World Spirituality Editions (1997)
• Пятигорский А. М. Избранные труды. — М.: 2005 (In Russian)

Fiction and essays

• Пятигорский А. М. Философия одного переулка (London, 1989, М., 1994) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Вспомнишь странного человека (М., 1999) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Рассказы и сны. (М., 2001) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Древний человек в городе (М., 2001) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Мышление и наблюдение (Рига, 2002) (In Russian)
• Пятигорский А. М. Непрекращаемый разговор (М., 2004) (In Russian)