Ferrari & Dähnhardt/Soulless Matter, Introduction.

This introductory chapter outlines some early Indian philosophical ideas on what is generally addressed as the inanimate world. In particular it surveys how earth, minerals, gems and metals have been conceptualized in relation to life and sentience. The phenomenal world in Indian traditions cannot be merely reduced to either animate or inanimate. Earth, stones and metals can be infused with life, or have natural potency which permits them to escape such a rigid classification. One further problem emerges when we try to ontologically define what determines ‘life,’ and the lack thereof.