The philosophy underlying Hinduism contrasts in many interesting ways with the various philosophical traditions that come from the Western world. There is a search for the true nature of Being, and you can see Ancient Hindu texts wrestling with the finitude that defines human life. Similarly, there is an attempt to found metaphysics—as well as ethics and politics—on an absolute ground, albeit one that is significantly different from those found in Ancient Greek, Medieval, and early Modern philosophies. Finally, just as philosophers like Aristotle and Nietzsche have done, there is a categorizing and ranking of the various human pursuits, from order and freedom to pleasure and compassion.
For a time, philosophers in the West didn’t engage with Hinduism qua philosophy, since it was originally thought of as a religion. Yet as time as passed, more individuals have examined the underlying beliefs of Hinduism, and found they contain interesting philosophical insights. As the papers and books below demonstrate, Hinduism connects with topics from Environmental Ethics to the question of evil. As the West and the East continue to reveal themselves to each other, consider exploring some of the ways your research connects to Eastern traditions like Hinduism.
- Christopher G. Framarin, Hinduism and Environmental Ethics: Law, Literature, and Philosophy, Routledge, 2014.
- George Gispert-Sauch, SJ, “‘Orthodoxy’ and ‘Heterodoxy’ in Hinduism and Buddhism,” Concilium, 2014.
- Montesano Mark, “Heidegger, Gandhi, and the paradoxical search for a metaphysics of nonviolence,” Studia Philosophiae Christianae, 2014
- N. Trakakis, “Absolute idealism and the problem of evil,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, August 2017.
- Farah Godrej, “Orthodoxy and Dissent in Hinduism’s Meditative Traditions: A Critical Tantric Politics?” New Political Science, 2016.
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