What is this thing called Indian Philosophy PDF

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What is this thing called Indian Philosophy? A crash course∗ R. Venkata Raghavan [email protected] In this short introduction, we shall see what philosophy is, how it is related to other subjects and then have a very brief overview of Indian philosophy. This paper does not intend to summari...

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What is this thing called Indian Philosophy? A crash course∗ R. Venkata Raghavan [email protected] In this short introduction, we shall see what philosophy is, how it is related to other subjects and then have a very brief overview of Indian philosophy. This paper does not intend to summarize the concepts of the philosophy module in the KTPI text (Module 4: Indian Philosophical Systems). It is meant to supply, to whatever extent possible, the necessary conceptual background for teaching Philosophy in general and Indian Philosophy in particular. The discussion is definitely not thorough and infact does not even scratch the surface. However, since the aim is to provide the teachers a springboard from which they can access the philosophy module in the textbook, the brevity may be excused. Where do we begin? Let us look at the objectives of the KTPI course to give us some answers: The objective of each module, as of the whole course, is to re-connect the young minds with the large body of intellectual activity that has always happened in India and, more importantly, to enable them 1. to relate the knowledge available to the contemporary life, theories and practices, 2. to develop, wherever feasible, a comparative view on a level ground of the contemporary Western ideas and the Indian theories and practices, and 3. to extend their horizons beyond what is presented or is available and contemplate on possible new meanings, extensions and uses of the ideas - in other words to make them think.1 Accordingly, we will first begin with a contemporary understanding of philosophy and then narrow our focus to Indian philosophy and see if some comparative study emerges out of the discussion. One important point to note, at the outset, is that we are interested in Philosophy as an academic discipline. This sets it apart from several colloquial uses of that word ‘philosophy.’ For example, we often hear people asking “What is your philosophy in life?” or saying “Live and Let Live, that is my philosophy” or commenting that “The philosophy of the so-and-so party is utterly This material has been made specially for the teachers who attended the KTPI training in Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Ernakulam from 23rd-26th April, 2018. Please consult the author before referring to this article 1 Convenor’s note, Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Textbook for Class XI, CBSE. Hence forth KTPIXI. Emphasis added ∗

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regressive”. Here ‘philosophy’ is used in the sense of principles, maxim or ideology (respectively). We are not concerned with such uses of the term.

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Philosophy: Contemporary Understanding

In this section we will see where philosophy finds itself amidst the multitude of (increasingly specialized) disciplines in modern academic space. We will then attempt a tentative definition of philosophy and go on to see its relation with Science. This is important since, given the predominance of choosing Science streams among high school students, the significance of Philosophy can be better communicated to them, if it is explained in relation to the Sciences. Lastly, we will see what are the major areas of contemporary philosophy.

1.1

Philosophy: Its place in today’s academics

All contemporary disciplines can be broadly divided into two categories: Human Sciences and Natural Sciences. Here, the word Science does not stand for Physics, Chemistry etc. but for any methodological inquiry into a well-defined set of problems. Thus, two conditions go into labeling something a ‘Science:’ a domain or scope (the objects which that discipline intends to study) and a method/methods (with which it will study those objects). The method of inquiry may be (and generally is) different in different disciplines and this is partly because of the difference in the object of inquiry. This first level classification (into Human and Natural Sciences) is very intuitive to a modern mind since it sets the enquirer on one side and everything else on the other side. Analogically, if pigs were doing science, there would be Pig Sciences and Natural Sciences. Similarly, if butterflies were doing science, there would be Butterfly Sciences and Natural Sciences. Under the Natural sciences are grouped all those disciplines whose objects of inquiry are not the enquirers (i.e Humans) themselves.2 Among the Human Sciences, we can identify 3 further categories: Social Sciences, Behavioral Sciences and Humanities. The object of inquiry of the Social Sciences is the human society and its various aspects. Thus, we place Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Commerce etc in this category. The Behavioral Sciences deal with the mental aspects of the human being and we can place various disciplines of Psychology under this heading. Lastly, the Humanities deal with all the cultural/creative output of human life. In this, we find Literature, Linguistics, History and finally Philosophy. Note that this classification is not rigid and is subject to change which may occur due to a change in method or due to some fundamental shift in the concepts used in that discipline).3 Also, the disciplines do not stand in isolation with one another but are (and should be) in continuous dialogue with each other. Philosophers are as much informed by developments in Physics as Physicists may be informed by developments in Psychology. Advances in the Social Sciences may be due to advancements in Mathematics or Computer Science. Thus, though logically and methodologically distinct, the Sciences form one huge web of knowledge. 2

In Biology, we may study the human body but this is done with the assumption that the specimen under examination is primarily an object of nature. 3 For instance, Linguistics used to be considered to be a Behavioral Science in the first half of the 20th Century

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Sciences

Human Sc.

Natural Sc. Physics, Chemistry, Biology

Social Sc.

Behavioral Sc.

Humanities

Economics, Pol.Sc, Sociology...

Psychology

History, Literature, Philosophy

Figure 1: A Taxonomy of Modern Disciplines

1.2

Definition of Philosophy

Now, that we have seen where Philosophy stands in the network of disciplines, we will try to define this term. A tentative definition is: Philosophy is a critical examination of our most general and abstract claims.4 Two terms are of importance in the above definition: Abstract and General. Philosophy deals with abstract concepts and claims. An ‘abstract’ concept stands in opposition to a ‘concrete’ concept in that the former is intangible. It cannot be observed under a microscope or ‘perceived’ by any other instrument. Take the example of ‘knowledge’ which is the subject matter of one entire branch of philosophy called Epistemology (Section 1.4). We cannot ask a philosopher to show us knowledge just as we might as a chemist to show us a chemical reaction. However, other disciplines too study abstract concepts. For instance, ‘class’ which is studied by social scientists or ‘emotions’ which is studied by psychologists. Then what differentiates philosophical topics from such topics? The answer is: generality. Philosophical concepts are most general in nature. The opposite of ‘general’ is ‘particular’ or ‘specific.’ The social scientists may be interested in the concept of ‘class’ but they are more inclined to study this-or-that class as opposed to studying what class itself means. Again, a psychologist may study this or that emotions but takes it for granted that such a concept (as emotion) exists. It is left to the philosopher (inclined towards social sciences or psychology) to ask these general questions. Because of these two qualities, philosophical concepts tend to be at the very foundation of a Science. A change in the understanding of these concepts may result in a significant shift in the way the respective Science(s) is carried out. Another aspect of contemporary philosophy is that it is a meta-discipline. ‘Meta’ is a prefix in Greek language meaning ‘beyond’ but in the current usage it means ‘about.’ Thus, meta-rules are rules about rules, meta-data is data about data and so on.5 We say Philosophy is a meta-discipline because “[in] Philosophy the concepts with which we approach the world themselves become the topic of inquiry.”6 To 4

I owe this definition to Prof. S.G.Kulkarni, Univ. of Hyderabad. We find a similar definition is Blackburn, Simon. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd Revised Edition. 2008. entry on Philosophy 5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta 6 Blackburn, op. cit.

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consider the same example as above, ‘class’ is a concept used by the social scientist to understand society. However, the philosopher is concerned with the concept of ‘class’ itself. Similarly, a physicist may use time to study events. But a philosopher studies the concept of ‘time.’

1.3

Philosophy and Science

To understand, more clearly, how philosophy is a meta-discipline, let us examine how scientific questions can lead to questions of philosophy. Consider the following set of questions: 1. At what speed does earth revolve around the sun? 2. What is speed? 3. What is time? 4. What is motion? 5. What is change? As one can observe, the questions get more and more abstract and general from the first to the fifth. Also, the last question asks something about the concept (change) without assuming which the first question cannot be answered. This is an example of the gradual shift from scientific inquiry to a philosophical inquiry. This also illustrates how philosophical understanding of some concepts (like motion and change) can bring about changes in the way scientific questions are answered. Consider two other examples which illustrate the above points: 1. Should person over 70 be allowed to contest election? 2. What are the criteria for good governance? 3. Why should there be governance?

1. What is the correct use of prepositions in English? 2. What are parts of speech in English? 3. What are parts of speech? 4. What is speech?

4. What is a community/society?

5. What is language?

5. What is an individual?

6. What is meaning?

6. What is ‘Self’ ?

Hence, rather than thinking of philosophy and science as two distinct and independent disciplines, we may look at them as occupying varying positions on a spectrum of questions ranging from the less abstract to the more abstract and less general to more general (figure 2).

1.4

Branches of Philosophy

Next, let us look at, briefly, the major branches of contemporary Philosophy. Broadly, these are Metaphysics, Epistemology and Axiology (or Value theory).

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more specific SCIENCE

more general PHILOSOPHY

more concrete

more abstract

Figure 2: The Science-Philosophy Continuum • Metaphysics is the study of Reality which lies beyond the access of Sciences.7 Typically, this includes questions of Mind-Body (their relation), Causation, God, Personal Identity and Ontology (a classification of the types of things in a world). • Epistemology is the study of knowledge. While metaphysics studies the essence (or nature) of events/objects in the world, epistemology studies how we have knowledge about those events/objects and what is the nature of knowledge itself. Examples of some epistemological questions are: What is the definition of knowledge? How is knowledge possible? Can we be certain about anything? What are the sources of knowledge? etc. • Lastly, Axiology deals with the study of values, the pursuit of which makes human life meaningful or purposive. Traditionally, three values are identified: – Truth, which is studied by Logic. The various tool by which one can distinguish right reasoning to incorrect reasoning are examined. – Good, which is studied by Ethics. Typically, the questions can be of the form: What is a virtue? What kind of virtues lead to a good life? What is the relationship between a moral life and a good life? etc. – Beauty, which is studied by Aesthetics. Here, one can ask questions related to beauty in nature or beauty in art. For instance, on what basis can we say that a work of art (a painting, a movie, a sculpture, a poem) is beautiful? Why do we find Nature captivating? etc. To the values we may add another value called Justice which is the subject matter of Social/Political Philosophy. Philosophy Metaphysics Epistemology

Axiology Truth Beauty Good Justice

Figure 3: Branches in Contemporary Philosophy

1.5

Doing Philosophy

Before we end our general survey of Philosophy, we will do well to note some methodological aspects of this discipline. Firstly, given that its subject matter tends to be 7

Note the occurrence of the prefix ‘meta.’ Here, it is being used in its original sense.

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abstract and general, there is no one way of ‘doing philosophy.’ Hence, unless we are engaged in some meta-philosophical analysis,8 we cannot judge one method to be better or worse than the other. However, a common tool used in all philosophical analysis is ‘argument.’ It is on the basis of examining the relative merits of different arguments than we may conclude about something in Philosophy. There are several parameters to judge an argument like validity, soundness, convincingness, parsimony of entities assumed, reasonableness of assumptions, hidden premises etc.9 The history of philosophy is a history of arguments and counter-arguments. No argument is perfect nor is it ever permanently refuted. Hence, philosophers tend to revisit arguments which are centuries old, present fresh criticism against them or revitalize them with new concepts and present them in a fresh light to the philosophical community. One may say rather poetically that, like love, philosophy is a also timeless.

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Philosophy in India

Now, that we have the required background to understand what Philosophy is, let us look at some specific caveats which apply to Indian Philosophy.

2.1

Philosophy: Equivalent words and place

Let us begin by looking at the words which were used in Sanskrit to refer to the activity of philosophizing. The most common word we find is ‘dar´ sana’ which means a view or a perspective. Thus, when we say ‘ny¯ aya dar´sana’ or ‘ved¯anta dar´sana’ we may understand these as ‘nya¯ya perspective’ and ‘ved¯anta perspective.’ However, the word could also be used in the sense of ‘school’ thus rendering the above terms as ¯ ¯ ‘ny¯ aya school’ and ‘ved¯anta school’ of philosophy. The other term used is Anv iks.ik¯ i 10 which means “investigation through reasoning.” Some other terms which have been proposed are Tarka, Tattva-´sa¯stra, Tattva-vidy¯ a. Now, let us turn to the place of Philosophy in the pre-modern Indian knowledge systems. Kautilya, in the Artha´sa¯stra (2nd-3rd century B.C.E) classifies all knowledge into Trayi (The 3 Veda11 ), V¯art¯ a (Commerce and trade), Dand.a-N¯iti (Science of ¯ ¯iks.ik¯i (Philosophy). polity) and Anv vidy¯ a ¯ ¯iks.ik¯i V¯art¯ a Trayi Dand.a-N¯iti Anv Figure 4: Place of philosophy in Indian Knowledge Systems He has the following to say about the nature and purpose of these sciences.12 8

Philosophizing about philosophy itself! For an introduction to these concepts one may refer to Introduction of Logic by Irving Copi, Carl Cohen, Priyadarshi Jetli and Monica Prabhakar, Pearson, 2009, 13th Edition, Indian Subcontinent Adaptation or A Concise Introduction to Logic by Patrick Hurley, Cengage Learning, 11th Edition, 2011 10 Perrett 2016: 5 11 R ama . g, Yaju´s and S¯ 12 Artha´s¯astra Book 1, Ch 2, Section 1, The [Enumeration] of Sciences. Emphasis added 9

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¯ ¯iks.ik¯i comprises the Philosophy of Sam Anv ayata (het. khya, Yoga, and Lok¯ erodox thinking). Righteous and unrighteous acts (dharma-adharmau) are learnt from the triple Vedas; wealth and non-wealth from V¯arta (arthaanarthau); the expedient and the inexpedient (naya-apanayau) from the ¯ ¯iks.ik¯i, by means of various arscience of government. The science of Anv guments decides the significance (bala-abalau) of the various sciences, and is most beneficial to the world of knowledge. It keeps the mind steady and firm in weal and woe alike and bestows excellence of foresight, speech and action. Light to all kinds of knowledge, easy means to accomplish all ¯ ¯iks.ik¯i kinds of acts and the locus of all kinds of virtues, is the Science of Anv ever held to be. As we can see, Philosophy, is essentially a meta-discipline according to Kautilya. While ¯ ¯iks.ik¯i studies/guides the sciences themother sciences have a clear object of study, Anv selves. Hence, this conception of Philosophy agrees very well with our contemporary understanding of Philosophy. A common claim about Indian Philosophy is that it is not merely an intellectual exercise but practically oriented. This claim may be justified on the following grounds. The Indian thinkers recognized four goal of human life called the Purus.¯artha. These are Dharma, Artha, K¯ ama and Moks.a. The pursuit of each of these goals makes human life meaningful. Hence, there evolved a tradition of knowledge devoted to explaining the nature of each of these goals and setting out the best way to achieve them. The Artha-´sa¯stras concerned themselves with whatever material goods were required to live a good life. The K¯ ama-´sa¯stra explained the ways to attain pleasure (their conception of k¯ ama was not limited to physical pleasure alone). Both these ´sa¯stra-s were regulated by the Dharma-´sa¯stras which dealt with the various aspects of individual and social morality. These three values (called the trivarga) were, however, considered as means to achieve Moks.a, the parama-purus.¯artha (supreme goal). The nature of moks.a and the means of attaining it was the subject matter of Philosophy. Hence, philosophy in India may also be called Moks.a-´sa¯stra. Values Dharma

K¯ama

Artha

Moks.a

s¯ astra Dharma´s¯astra Artha´s¯astra K¯ama´sa¯stra Moks.a´ Figure 5: The ethical motivation for Dar´sana-s Thus, Indian Philosophy serves not only as meta-discipline, which sheds light on all other disciplines, but also serves to achieve the most important goal of human life, i.e liberation from it.

2.2

The different Dar´ sana-s

As we saw in section 1.2, Philosophy concerns itself with the most abstract and general claims. This is true of Indian Philosophy too. We also saw that there is no one method of doing philosophy. Hence, different traditions of philosophy emerged in India. These differences were either due to a difference in method or due to what they considered 7

to be the most fruitful object of philosophical inquiry. Broadly, we can classify these schools as ¯ astika and n¯ astika. The KTPIXI translates these terms as theistic and atheistic (p.137) which is misleading. A better translation would be orthodox and heterodox. The basis of this classification, is the acceptance or non-acceptance of the Veda as the valid sources of knowledge about events which occur in the after life. It is important to note that the n¯astika-s especially the Bauddha and Jaina do not reject the Vedic knowledge altogether. For example, the Vedic concepts of karma, transmigration of the soul, avidya, moks.a are accepted to them too (in suitably modified ways). It is only the statements of the Veda about the journey of soul after death and matters related to vedic scarifies which the Bauddha and Jaina philosophers find difficult to accept. The C¯arv¯aka are a little more extreme and reject even such concepts as karma etc.13 Dar´san¯a N¯astika

a¯stika

Six-Systems Bauddha Jaina C¯arv¯aka/lokay¯ata Figure 6: Different Dar´sana-s The ¯astika-dar´sana-s, which are traditional six in number and hence called 14 ´sad.dar´sana, are Ny¯ay...