Department of Philosphy
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Browsing Department of Philosphy by Subject "Buddhism"
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ItemPhilosophy and India: Ancestors, Outsiders, and Predecessors( 2013-09-26) Raghuramaraju, A.Philosophy is the terrain that can systematically explicate the soul of India. Yet, notwithstanding its true capacity and assigned centrality, philosophy in modern India has not lived up to fulfilling this task. Taking cognizance of this history, this book embarks on the project of critically assessing the contributions of seven twentieth-century academic philosophers of India. The first part examines three philosophers who offer Indian solutions to Western problems: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, who offers Advaita to overcome the Kantian problem of unknowability of the self; Akeel Bilgrami, who offers Gandhi's views of exemplar as the way out for solving the problems surrounding Western moral philosophy; and B. K. Matilal, who invests the resources of the epic, the Mahabharata, to buy ethics for Indian philosophy. The second part discusses Daya Krishna and K. Satchidananda Murty, who, while preoccupied with ancient Indian and Western philosophies, have failed to take into consideration the contributions of their immediate predecessors. The last part discusses how both Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and S. Radhakrishnan explain away the radical project of Buddha and Buddhism and portray it as a part of Hinduism. In this context the contribution of B. R. Ambedkar and T. R. V. Murti is discussed. Thus, this book brings critical perspectives on some of the major Indian philosophers' discussion on the West, modernity, colonialism, classical Indian philosophy, and modern Western philosophy. This critical evaluation of the works of these prominent philosophers will enable us to take stock of the strengths and also be aware of the limitations if not weaknesses that prevail in the practice of philosophy in India.
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ItemUniversal self, equality and hierarchy in Swami Vivekananda( 2015-06-04) Raghuramaraju, A.In the context of analysing the relation between the master and the disciple, Ramakrishna Pramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda, the article brings together different unconnected writings for a systematic and cumulative argumentation on this important relation. This is undertaken with reference to Ramakrishna’s strict adherence to equality amongst all religions and his disciple’s claim for the superiority of Hinduism in general and Advaita Vedanta in particular. Having set the background, it further embarks on explaining the possible reasons for deviations by the pupil from the master by brining into the centre-stage the whole sale claims of the entire nineteenth-century scholarship as derivative by Indologists like Hacker. The failure to recognise these important dimensions imbricated in this relation is traced firstly to the general failure in reading the nature and logic of modernity, particularly, the invariance between its attitude towards both its own pre-modern and those non-Western societies like India which it sought to colonise. Second, to treating modern Indian thinkers as authors in the modern sense of the term when they are not strictly so.