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26) A NEW WAY OF APPROACH
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is stressed in different proportions on its various aspects.
Men's thoughts and actions differ greatly according to their different surroundings and social backgrounds, even on its religious side. It is only under similar conditions that men's thought and action can be everywhere similar: and it is chiefly because those conditions are never precisely the same, that the development of religious beliefs shows its peculiar and particular aspects in each stage of history. Therefore, even concerning religious thought historical study is indispensable.
We do not deny that some traditional ways of thinking are very obstinate and recalcitrant. Concerning India where things are regarded to be stagnant, we can say, though peoples of different races and cultures have been pouring into India from early days, Hinduism has been able to maintain its supremacy, and even the proselytising creeds backed by political power have not been able to coerce the large majority of Indians to their views. However, at the same time we must also admit that some kinds of thought have appeared and prevailed in particular periods. Therefore, a history of thought exists.
Each assertion by philosophers and by thinkers possesses a significance reaching far bevond the time and the country where it was first advocated. We claim for it an inestimable value for the whole race of mankind. Whatever new paths the philosophy of the future may strike out, this principle will remain permanently unshaken. However, we cannot but notice historical character of the ways of posing philosophical problems. This accounts for the possibility of history of ideas as such.
Comparative study of a history of philosophy from such a viewpoint is not only of historical importance, but also necessary to philosophy itself. Only by experimenting with different philosophical conceptions in comparison with each other and relating them with the innermost essence of our life, we can hope to get at the truth. Paul Deussen asserts:8_Whether philosophical speculation is going on the stars, or not, we do not know and we shall hear nothing of it for the time being. But if human or pseudo-human races should live on other planets of our solar system or on possibly innumerable planets of other solar systems and if they should produce a culture and philosophy in its fullest flower, then we can probably assume that this philosophy of the other worlds will show a large-scale concordance with the philosophy of our planet in its essential developments and results. Suppose that a man of Mars
8 Paul Deussen: Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie. I, 1, 4 Aufl. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1920, S. 7;
Die Sutras des Vedanta, 2 Aufl. Leipzing, F. A. Brackhaus, 1920, Vorrede, S. 5-6.
