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East-West Comparative Philosophy I

 We have been discussing (wisdom/yoga/philosophy of) synthesis keeping esoteric philosophy (Theosophy with 24 Books of DK/AAB and Synthetic Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo) as a cornerstone. In next few posts we summarize the findings of studies in comparative philosophy in the humanities departments of Universities. For that purpose we will keep an introductory yet academically rigorous book "Introduction to comparative philosophy by P.T. Raju" as our reference.


Usually the important philosophical traditions of the world are regarded as four: the Greek, the Jewish, the Chinese, and the Indian. The Jewish tradition has become part of the western, and the author has included it this book.


The world situation is such that the East and the West have come once for all into intimate contact on a vast scale. Each feels the necessity for mutual understanding and even for assimilating whatever in the other is true and useful. This need to understand is no longer a matter of mere intellectual curiosity but of survival. The eastern and western ‘minds need to be integrated. It has been asserted and is still being maintained today that each has a different kind of soul. But if the two: are to be integrated, we have to assume a deeper soul comprehending the manifest souls of both. This common soul must always have been, without either component being conscious of its presence. The encompassing soul has to be discovered and understood; and in its terms the separate souls have to be reappraised.


The book presents the philosophical traditions with a unified perspective from which they can be studied comparatively. Comparative philosophy must have a philosophical aim. Only when the aim is clarified can the work be given a definite shape. The aim has to illuminate the perspective; then the traditions thrown into perspective take on a definite meaning and significance. The aim of comparative philosophy is the elucidation of the nature of man and his environment in order that a comprehensive philosophy of life and a plan for thought and action may be obtained. It is with this end in view that the book has been written. Many who know western philosophy know very little of the Indian and the Chinese; even the Indians who are acquainted with both western and Indian philosophies have little knowledge of the Chinese. Similarly, many Chinese know very little of the western and the Indian except Buddhism. Moreover, each has many wrong notions about the other philosophies and cannot get the feel of them. In the book, all three traditions are given in outline. Hence the reader can learn the general trends and central ideas of each.


Most of the books written are not from any single point of view, not even according to any single plan, with the result that one becomes confused when attempting to get a comparative view. The reader belonging to any one tradition should get an understandable impression of the others. This purpose can be achieved only if all the traditions can be presented according to a generally common plan and common concepts. The book does this in a modest fashion by introducing the western, Indian, and Chinese readers to each others’ philosophies.


If reason is the same everywhere and many of life's problems are shared, this strangeness ought to be minimized. Any presentation of all philosophies together should lessen this strangeness and increase understandability. References to religion are made in the book, yet they are not to religion as such, but only to the philosophy underlying or imbedded in it.


Someday in the future, academician might realize that the book ends at the boundary of comparative study from where the esoteric books start and journey deep into philiosophical synthesis. What is considered as esoteric today should be treated academic tomorrow.


Image : Cover Page of the book and its contents covering the three major philosophical traditions and their comparative study leading towards the goal of philosophical synthesis, which Prof Raju calls a kind of "World Philosophy".






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