________________
ordinary language is inadequate for philosophical purposes by reason of its vagueness, inexplicitness, ambiguity, contexdependence and misleadingness.”
(4) Conceptual analysis as the job of philosophy goes with the analysis of language. What this method of conceptual analysis is “fitted to produce clarity, and explicitness with respect to the basic concepts in terms of which we think about the world and human life” ,
(5) Alongside this meaning and function of philosophy, there is another meaning which is ascribed to philosophy. According to this, philosophy is concerned with fundamental human situations: love, birth, suffering, struggle, death, subjectivity, authentic and inauthentic human existence, and so on.
Now the question is : In what sense of the term Gandhi is a philosopher? Gandhi is certainly not a philosopher in the second and third connotation of the term. What I mean to say is that neither Gandhi set before himself the task of constructing great systems of philosophy by using the deductive method just as Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel etc. did, nor did he declare that the ethical statements, metaphysical expressions and religious propositions are meaningless and do not have any cognitive content. That Gandhi is not an academic philosopher is surely true in these senses of the term. He may be called a philosopher partially in the first and fourth senses and completely in the fifth sense of the term. The fourth sense of the term appears in Gandhi when he asks such questions - What is Ahiṁsā? What is truth? What is God? The questions are just like the questions asked by Socrates. What is justice?, What is virture?, etc. If Socrates can be given the title of a philosopher, Gandhi deserves it all the more.
162
Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
