Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how Francis Zimmerman invalidates the concept/precept binary, in the context of its consequences for the definition of wellbeing and illness, and philosophy as a system of thought.

Paper long abstract:

The recent interest in the non-western systems of medicine and healing, and studies in ritual and possession, hinges upon alternative conceptions of self-hood; a move away from the fixed notions of identity to the one in which self-hood or identity is conceived as a process, mutable and non-linear. Though it emerged as a denial of Louis Dumont's thesis on the nature of man, it soon gave birth to a host of studies on the South-Asian thought systems. Of particular importance here are the studies that developed the 'theory of humors', which has thrown insights onto the alternative conceptions of health, illness, cure etc. and in particular on the Ayurvedic and such traditional healing therapies. These explorations can also be seen as a search for alternative perceptions on scientific nomenclature of disease, illness, etc. which thus escapes the traditional western medical taxonomies. On the other hand, the question of nomenclature was also pertinent to the definition of modern 'Philosophy' that moulded its image upon 'concepts', and differentiated itself from those eastern-systems of thought that are believed to have built upon 'precepts'. In this background this paper evaluates the contribution of Francis Zimmerman; his anthropological explorations into the Indian medical tradition of Ayurveda, in order to analyse how he negotiates with the Western taxonomic system, and emerges with new categories for thinking. Of particular emphasis is given to his attempt to invalidate the concept/precept binary, and its consequences to Gilles Deleuze's definition of Philosophy, philosophy's relation to nomenclature and its objects.