Alexander Piatigorsky

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

Sasha was born in Moscow and was the son of Moses, a Chief Engineer in a large Artillery plant. Sasha worked in the plant when it was relocated to the Urals during WW2.

He taught at the Moscow State University until 1954, and thenceforth at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he later became the "Professor of the History of South Asia". He is known generally as a philosopher.

In his early years in USSR 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 (1960). 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.

Piatigorsky's early work was on ancient Indic culture and religion, which was viewed by some as a subtly indirect way of attacking the Soviet system. Consequently he was followed extensively by the KGB until he emigrated to Israel in 1972. From there he moved to Oxford and London 1974.

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 interrupts their thinking and for his highly colourful lectures, pacing up and down the lecture room with no notes.

During this time he had four wives and five children.

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. "Мышление и наблюдение" (Рига, 2002) (In Russian)
*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. "Непрекращаемый разговор" (М., 2004) (In Russian)