Indian and Western Philosophy (A Study in Contrasts)

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Indian and Western Philosophy: A Study in Contrasts is based on the Forlong Fund Lectures of Dr Betty Heimann under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society. The philosophies of the West has immensely contributed to the growth of exact sciences, while India, on the other hand, has made more valuable contributions to metaphysics.

While keeping the motto of the West as "man is the measure of all things" and the Indian motto of "atman is same in all beings" in the backdrop, this book deliberates on topics such as the theological position of both the Western and Indian philosophies and their ontology and eschatology, ethics, logic, aesthetics, history and applied science. It also analyses the apparent rapprochement between the West and the East.

Betty Heimann (1988-1961), PhD, a German Indologist, had a doctorate in philosophy for her dissertation on the Katha Upanishad; she was professor of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. She also taught at the University of London, the University of Oxford and was professor at the University of Ceylon during 1945-49. Dr Heimann was an awardee for best scientific work of a woman by the International Association of Female Academics for her research work on the "Study of the Character of Indian Thinking".

THIS comparative study of Indian and Western philosophical ideas is based on the Forlong Fund Lectures, under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society, which I was invited to deliver in the Lent Term, 1936, as .a special course at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Forlong Fund Committee for having given me the opportunity to present my subject to an English audience.