Philosophies of India Review
Indian philosophy can be a difficult subject to understand. Philosophies of India by Heinrich Zimmer is a good example of this: at the time when it was written, it was questioned whether there even was such a thing as Indian philosophy, with a belief that perhaps it was so bound up in religious affairs that it did not actually constitute a secular philosophy in the Western tradition of the Greeks and their heirs. While certainly a tradition which was much influenced and bound up in religious thought, Zimmer tries to point
While it is hard to generalize with Indian philosophy, a few elements stand out. One is the intense interest in quantization and numbering. Indian philosophers seem to have been eager to provide numerical schemes for events: five different bodily forces, three different types of merit to be gained from giving, six different stages of bodily aura, etc. It’s difficult at times to seize the sheer width and diversity present in Indian philosophy: they seem to have thought about every single subject and to have a huge spectrum of different maxims, to the extent that it becomes extraordinarily difficult to sum it up in any single principle (the same I suppose, could be said of Western philosophy). If any single element can be chosen it seems to be that the visible world is unreal, the true one hidden behind a screen of Maya, and that it is our task to attempt to penetrate this curtain to find the reality behind it. This is reinforced again and again in different sections of the book and arguably in different religions, and this presentation of it is a fundamental building block to understand Indian thought. Another key element seems to be the idea of everything having a certain place, so that even the harlot, in carrying out her duties well, gains a certain credit and power: powers and abilities are tied not to some inborn trait, but rather to one’s enlightenment and perfection. Miracles were performed by saints or enlightened above all else as a result of their enlightenment, and not as inherent wizard magic as might have been the case in the West.
It's very impressive to observe the subtlety and the nuance with which the Indian philosophers dealt with the subject of matter and various elements of existence: as I say elsewhere, it makes it difficult to deal with their complexity, but they thought extensively and great length about attributes of reality and material objects. The book conveys this at length and one gains a true sense of their sophistication.
One aspect that might have been improved upon was its discussion of the direct side of Indian philosophy in terms of the practical side, with Indian statecraft, politics, the ideals of foreign relations. Admittedly, the course that it does take is interesting in that it reflects on contemporary events, being a book written in WW2: it illustrates points such as the Hindu ideal of surprise attacks through Japan’s strike on Pearl Harbor, or the rings of friendly and unfriendly states through Nazi Germany’s enmity with its neighbor (Britain) and its alliance with its second ring (Japan). But it would have been good to have these displayed with Indian examples as well, instead of being purely focused on European history.
However it does give a good look at Indian history and it incorporates this well into the philosophical aspects. A key part seems to have been that while in Greece, during the time before Socrates, the Gods were removed from philosophy and thought: it would not be the same for India, where this secularism never entered philosophy. Buddhism seems to have been as well a very historically contingent phenomenon, one that was very dependent upon political movements and changes.
A History of Indian Philosophy has a tremendous amount of information, and as compared to Myths and Symbols of Indian Civilization it is much more understandable. While it still is at times difficult to understand with the advanced theological issues that it covers and different philosophical ideas, it is still a highly detailed book and the problems with understanding it have much more to do with the very nature of the subject it deals with. There are probably other books that make for a better basic introduction to Indian philosophy and its ideals, but it’s still a good work and would be very good I imagine for somebody with an already moderate level of grounding in Indian philosophy.
