Classical Indian Philosophy

Like the other volumes in this series of the history of philosophy without any gaps, this is an astonishing intellectual tour de force written in an accessible and engaging style. In a previous issue, I reviewed the corresponding volume on medieval philosophy. The 49 chapters cover origins, the age of the sutra, Buddhists and Jainas, and at the end there is a short section entitled beyond ancient India. Some readers may be familiar with the two-volume work by Radhakrishnan, who in fact receives very little attention in this book, including in the chapter on the putative influence of Indian philosophy on the Greeks – his book Eastern Religions and Western Thought does not feature in the bibliography. Part of the discussion of this issue centres around Plotinus, and I wondered whether the similarities between his insights and Indian thought might have arisen from a common experience rather than written sources, although the discussion here is well informed and subtle. Another interesting parallel is philosophy as a way of life (see Larry Culliford's review of Pierre Hadot in the last issue).

There are differences, however, as Indian philosophy is centrally concerned with liberation from suffering and the wheel of rebirth. Besides extensive coverage of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhism in the first part, there are also discussions of other themes such as Panini's grammar, ancient Indian political thought, women in ancient India and nonviolence. The second part covers the six main schools of Indian thought while also addressing the rise of scepticism, naturalism, Ayurvedic medicine and other more familiar philosophical topics such as language, perception, reasoning, time and causation. The third part expands on the teachings of Buddhism (e.g. Nagarjuna) and Jainism and also Dagnaga (new to me) on perception, logic and consciousness. The final part also includes a discussion of Tantra along with the Indian influence on various forms of European thought. By bridging Indian and Western traditions, this book performs a valuable service, and recent developments in consciousness studies and non-duality have stronger resonances with these streams of thought, along with a greater emphasis on experience of the deeper structures of reality.