Studies in Philosophy (An Old and Rare Book)

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This book is made up of some of my unpublished papers and a selection from those which appeared in some journals. in India and abroad. In it very many philosophical problems are threshed out and some major issues arising in India after Independence considered. Apparently, the chapters loosely hang together, or are even detached from each other. But a patient reader will without a doubt find groupings, although some chapters undeniably stand singly. The first three chapters, for instance, deal with three basic problems of Absolutist (Advaita) Vedanta. In the first, the Advaita theory of ignorance and, for that matter, the nature and conditions of ignorance as such are discussed. There it is pointed out that contemporary philosophers have so far made no approach whatever to this problem, though we all know that they have between them made an exhaustive analysis of knowledge. In the second, the metaphysical position of the Absolutist Vedantist is attacked. And in the third, it is shown that the Advaitist fails to reconcile nirvikalpa samadhi, which is said to be the state of realization of the Indeterminate Brahman, with jivanmukti, i. e, liberation in bodily existence.

Chapters IV and V, again, show that there is, factually, no division between East and West in so far as their philosophico-religious ideas are concerned, and that there is absolutely no need for any synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophy. Chapter VI-Social Disintegration-leads up to Chapter VII. In the former it is considered among other things how a wrong conception of religion very often makes against the solidarity of social life, while in the latter the nature of true religion and its proper function in the social context are indicated in the light of the teaching of Sri Ramakrishna.