Indian Philosophy (Volume I)

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Item Code:	IDD914
Author:	S. Radhakrishnan
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, New Delhi
Language:	English
Edition:	2023
ISBN:	9780195698411
Pages:	738
Cover:	Paperback
Other Details	8.5" X 5.5"

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Book Description

About The Book

Long acknowledged as a classic, this pioneering survey of Indian thought charts a fascinating course through an intricate history. From the Rig Veda to Rmanuja, Radhakrishnan traces the development of Indian philosophy as a single tradition of thought through the ages. Individual philosophers and their views are interpreted in the light of this broad argument. The author shows ancient philosophical texts at their best and relates them to contemporary issues of philosophy and religion. The prevent meaning and significance from being obscured by detail. Parallels between Indian and western philosophical traditions are regularly drawn.

This volume, a general introduction to Indian philosophy, covers the Vedic and Epic periods, including expositions on the hymns of the Rig Veda, the Upanisads, Jainism, Buddhism and the theism of the Bhagvadgita. Scholarly yet lucid, this book is an absorbing read for the general reader interested in Indian philosophy.

About The Author:

S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975), distinguished scholar, statesman, and author, taught for many years at Oxford University before becoming the President of India in 1962. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954.

Excerpts from Review:

'S. Radhakrishnan's Indian philosophy (first published in 1923) is the first substantial work, in modern idiom, on the vast corpus of Indian philosophical thought. Over the past decades it has acquired the status of a classic. There is still a great deal in it both for the young philosophy undergraduate and for the serious researcher.'

- Mrinal Miri,
Vice Chancellor,
North Eastern Hill University, (NEHU), Shilong, India

'The Work gives a clear and rational account of the highest conceptions of Hinduism [a] happy blend of Eastern conceptions with Western terminology.'

-Times Literary Supplement

CONTENTS

Preface To Second Edition		5
Preface		7

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

General characteristics of Indian philosophy - The natural situation of India - The dominance of the intellectual interest - The individuality of Indian philosophy - The influence of the West - The spiritual character of Indian thought - Its close relation to life and religion - The stress on the subjective - Psychological basis of metaphysics - Indian achievements in positive science - Speculative synthesis and scientific analysis - The brooding East - Monistic idealism - Its varieties, non-dualism, pure monism, modified monism and implicit monism - God is all - The intuitional nature of philosophy - Darsana - Samkara's qualification of a candidate for the study of philosophy - The constructive conservatism of Indian thought - The unity and continuity of Indian thought - Consideration of some charges leveled against Indian philosophy, such as pessimism, dogmatism indifference to ethics and unprogressive character - The value of the study of Indian philosophy - The justification of the title "Indian Philosophy" - Historical method - The difficulty of a chronological treatment - The different periods of Indian thought - Vedic, epic, systematic and scholastic - "Indian" histories of Indian philosophy.

Part I
THE VEDIC PERIOD
CHAPTER II

THE HYMNS OF THE RG-VEDA

Vedas

Karma

CHAPTER III

TRANSITION TO THE UPANISADS	117
The general character of the Atharva-Veda - Conflict of cultures - The primitive religion of the Atharva-Veda - Magic and mysticism - The Yajur-Veda - The Brahmanas - Their religion of sacrifice and prayer - The dominance of the priest - The authoritativeness of the Veda - Cosmology - Ethics - Caste - Future life.

CHAPTER IV

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISADS

137

Introduction - The fluid and indefinite character of the teaching of the Upanisads - Western students of the Upanisads - Date -Early Upanisads - The geat thinkers of the age - The hymns of the Rg-Veda and the doctrine of the Upanisads compared - Emphasis on the monistic side of the hymns - The shifting of the center from the object to the subject - The pessimism of the Upanisads - The pessimistic implications of the conception of samsara - Protest against the externalism of the Vedic religion - Subordination of the Vedic knowledge - The central problems of Upanisads - Ultimate reality - The nature of Atman distinguished from body, dream consciousness and empirical self - The different modes of consciousness, waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep and ecstasy - The influence of the Upanisads analysis of self on subsequent thought - The approach to reality from the object side - Matter, life, consciousness, intelligence and anada - Samkara and Ramanuja on the status of ananda - Brahman and Atman - Tat tvam asi - The positive character of Brahman - Intellect and intuition - Brahman and the world - Creation - The doctrine of maya - Deussen's view examined - Degrees of reality - Are the Upanisads - The nature of the ideal - The general features - Asceticism - intellectualism - Jnana, Karma and Upasana - Morality and religion - Beyond good and evil - the religion of the Upanisads - Different forms - The Upanisads - Evil -Suffering -Its value - The problem of freedom - Future life and immortality - Psychology of the Upanisads - Non-Vedantic tendencies in the Upanisad - Samkhya - Yoga - Nyaya - General estimate of the thought of the Upanisads -Transition to the epic period.

PART II
THE EPIC PERIOD
CHAPTER V

MATERIALISM

271

The epic period 600 B.C. to A.D. 200 - Intellectual stir - Freedom of thought - The influence of the Upanisads - The political conditions of the time -The many-sided philosophic activity of the epic period -The three chief tendencies of ethical revolt, religious reconstruction and systematic philosophy - Common ideas of the age - Matter the only reality - Body and mind - No future life - No God - Hedonistic ethics - The repudiation of the authority of the Vedas - The effect of the theory - Later criticism of materialism.

CHAPTER VI

THE PLURALISTIC REALISM OF THE JAINAS

286

Dharma

CHAPTER VII

THE ETHICAL IDEALISM OF EARLY BUDDHISM

341

Introduction - The evolution of Buddhist thought - Literature of early Buddhism - The three Pitakas - Question of King Milinda - Visuddhimagga - Life and personality of Buddha - Condition of the time - The world of thought - The futility of metaphysics - the state of religion - Moral life - Ethics independent of metaphysics and theology - The positivist method of Buddha - His rationalism - Religion within the bounds of reason - Buddhism and the Upanisads - The four truth - The first truth of suffering - Is Buddhism pessimistic? - The second truth of the causes of suffering - Impermanence of things - Ignorance - The dynamic conception of reality - Bergson - Identity of objects and continuity of process - Causation - impermanence and momentariness - The world order - Being and becoming in Upanisads and early Buddhism - Aristotle, Kant and Bergson - Samkara on the ksanikavada - The nature of becoming - Is it objective or only subjective? -External rality - Body and mind - The empirical individual - Nairatmyavada - Nature of the Atman - Nagasena's theory of the soul -Its resemblance to Hume's - The nature of the subject -Samkara and Kant - Buddhist psychology -It relation to modern psychology -Sense perception - Affection, will and knowledge - Association -Duration of mental states - Subconsciousness - Rebirth - Pratityasamutpada - Nidanas - Avidya and the other links in the chain - The place of avidya in buddha's metaphysic - The act - Good and evil - The middle path - The eightfold way Buddhist Dhayana and the Yoga philosophy - The ten fetters - wardness of Buddhist morality - The charge of intellectualism - the complaint of asceticism - The order of mendicants - Sangha of the Vedas - The ethical significance of Karama - Karma and freedom - Rebirth - Its mechanism - Nirvana - its nature and varieties - The Nirvana of Buddhism and the Moksa of the Upanisads - God in early Buddhism - The criticism of the traditional proofs for the existence of God - The deification of Buddha - Compromises with popular religion - Buddhist theory of knowledge -Buddha's pragmatic agnosticism - Buddha's silence on metaphysics - The unity of thought between Buddhism and the Upanisads - Buddhism and the Samkhya theory - Success of Buddhism.

CHAPTER VIII

EPIC PHILOSOPHY

477

Mahabharata

Durga

Bhakti

CHAPTER IX

THE THEISM OF THE BHAGAVADGITA

519

Patanjali

CHAPTER X

BUDDHISM AS A RELIGION

581

The History of Buddhism after the death of Buddha - Ashoka - The Mahayana and the Hinayana - Northern and southern Buddhism - literature - Hinayana doctrine - Metaphysics, ethics and religion - The religion of the Mahayana - Its resemblance to the physics - The religion of the Mahayana - The ten stages - Hinayana and Mahayana ethics compared - Nirvana - Decline of Buddhism - The effects of Buddhism of Indian thought.

CHAPTER XI

THE SCHOOLS OF BUDDHISM	519
Introduction - The four schools of realism and idealism - The Vaibhasikas - Nature of reality - Knowledge - Psychology -The Sautrantikas - Knowledge of the external world - God and Nirvana - The Yogacaras - Their theory of knowledge - Nature of Alayavijnana - Subjectivism - Criticism of it by Samkara and Kumarila - Individual self - Forms of Knowledge - The Yogacara theory of the world - Avidya and Ajaya - Nirvana - Ambiguity of Alayavijanana - The Madhyamikas - Literature - Tge Madhyamika criticism of the Yogacara - Phenomenalism - Theory of relations - Two kinds of knowledge - Absolutism Sunyavada - Nirvana - Ethics - Conclusion.
APPENDIX	671
The Method of Approach - The Comparative Standpoint - The Upanisads - Early Buddhism - The Negative. The Agnostic and the Positive Views - Early Buddhism and the Upanisads - The Schools of Buddhism - Nagarjuna's Theory of Reality - Sunyavada and the Advaita Vedanta
NOTES	705
INDEX	725