Study Of Indian Philosophy In Germany And Austria

SR No.: 269267
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Wilhelm Halbfass
Publisher: Wilhelm Halbfass
Total Pages: 12
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 1

THE STUDY OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA: A SURVEY OF RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS
(1965-1972) By
WILHELM HALBFASS, Philadelphia (U.S.A.)
I. Historical Introduction
The study of Indian thought in Germany owes much of its initial momentum to Romantic nostalgia: "For the German Romanticists,.. India..was a symbol of their own spiritual origin and homeland, their own forgotten depth "1. Novalis, Görres, occasionally Schelling, to some extent already J. G. Herder, and above all Friedrich Schlegel were the heralds of this Romantic myth of India Friedrich as the cradle of mankind "2. It remains symptomatic that Schlegel's brother August Wilhelm became the first professor of Sanskrit in Germany (Bonn 1818); and still in his later British years, Max Müller was well aware of the Romantic roots of his own Indological interest. 3-G.W.F. Hegel, the most powerful critic of Romantic nostalgia, represents a different and highly critical approach to Indian thought; yet, he is a keen and watchful observer and tries to deal philosophically with Indian philosophy. 4 Other, and lesser, figures also demonstrate how Indian philosophy, however insufficiently known, enters the horizon of philosophers and historians of philosophy and contributes to articulating the idea of a world history of philosophy. K.J.H. Windischmann, e.g., includes Indian philosophy, with the aid of his son, the Sanskritist F.H.H. Windischmann, in his unfinished "Philosophy in the Progress of World History" (Die Philosophie im Fortgang der Weltgeschichte. I: Die Grundlage der Philosophie im Morgenlande, 4 vols., Bonn 1827-1834). The philosopherSanskritist O. Frank presents an edition and German translation of Sadananda's Vedantasära (München-Leipzig 1835), one of the favorite texts in the early days of the study of Vedanta ( also dealt with by F.H.H. Windischmann in the fourth volume of his father's work; E. Röer, 1845; L. Poley, 18695).
1 Halbfass, W. Hegel on the Philosophy of the Hindus. In: German Scholars on India (Varanasi 1973), p. 107-122.
2 Loc. cit.
3 Cf. India-What Can It Teach Us? (London 1883) 29-33.
4 E.g. in his Berlin "Lectures on the History of Philosophy" (Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie); cf. Halbfass, W. loc.cit.
5 Cf. Windisch, E. Geschichte der Sanskrit-Philologie und indischen Altertumskunde (I: Strassburg 1917; II: Berlin und Leipzig 1920: Grundriß der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde I, 1, B) 63 ff.; 207; 210 f. Potter, K. H. BIP; to Potter's list of translations, the German translation in O. Böhtlingk's Sanskrit-Chrestomathie (Leipzig 1909) nas to be added.