Hegel's India: A reinterpretation, with Texts (OIP) - Softcover

Rathore, Aakash Singh; Mohapatra, Rimina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199487502 ISBN 13: 9780199487509

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

In his writings on India, Hegel characterized Indian thought as "fantastic," "subjective," "wild," "dreamy," "frenzied," "absurd," and "repetitive." If Indian art, religion, and philosophy were so inadequate, what explains his lifelong fascination with India? This unique volume brings together Hegel's reflections and argues that Indian thought haunted him, representing a nemesis to his own philosophy. Further, it indicates that the longstanding critical appraisals of Hegel are incommensurate with his detailed explorations of Indian thought.

 
Hegel distinguished his own thought on two grounds. The first was to focus on freedom and to rail perpetually against the caste system. The second was to indicate the necessity for dialectical mediation, and thus to reprove the stasis of Indian thought. But did Hegel ever manage to exorcise the evil twin that beset his work? 

Shedding new light on Indological and Hegelian studies, this book systematically presents all of Hegel's writings on and about India for the first time, including translations of his lesser-known essays on the Bhagavad-Gita and the Oriental Spirit, along with a substantive reinterpretation and a bibliography. 

About this title

About the Author

Aakash Singh Rathore and Rimina Mohapatra

Aakash Singh Rathore is Director of the International Research Network for Religion and Democracy and International Fellow of the Center for Ethics and Global Politics, Rome, Italy. 

Rimina Mohapatra is Publishing Manager, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New Delhi, India.

From the Back Cover

'Hegel's India takes the challenge of a detailed reading of Hegel's texts with a surprising result: behind Hegel's dismissal of India, there lies not only his profound fascination with India but also an uncanny proximity between India's ancient wisdom and Hegel's speculative thought. Beneath Hegel's India, we can discern the traces of what would have been India's Hegel. [This book] provides a model of how a dialogue between different cultures should be practiced, beyond the confines of Eurocentrism and historicist relativism.'
Slavoj Žižek, International Director, the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, United Kingdom

'From the very beginning the depth of Hegel's engagement with India and with Indian philosophy has been consistently underestimated. This volume makes a compelling case for a reassessment and it does so at a time when Western philosophy faces renewed challenges for its Eurocentrism. Hegel's India belongs front and center within that debate for the new perspective it offers.'
Robert Bernasconi, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, USA

​​'It is wonderful to have access to these writings in one volume. The introduction gives a tour d'horizon of the sources Hegel consulted and the interpretive controversies surrounding his work on India . . . Reading Hegel is always challenging. If the difficulties are great, so are the stakes. Even in his most prejudiced criticism, he could shine a light ​on unusual questions.'
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, 'The Land of Desire', ​The Indian Express​

From the Inside Flap

Contents

Preface to This Edition
Acknowledgments

Reinterpretation
1. India in Hegel's System: The Ladder to the Circle
2. Hegel's Indological Sources and the Standard
Interpretation
3. Hegel's India Writings: The Gita and World History
4. Hegel's India Writings: Art, Religion, and Philosophy
5. Fragments: Oriental Spirit, Logic, and Right
6. Conclusion
References

Texts
1. On the Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm von Humboldt
2. Philosophy of World History
3. Lectures on the Philosophy of Fine Art
4. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
5. The Philosophy of Mind (Encyclopedia, Part III)
6. Lectures on the History of Philosophy
7. Fragments: Oriental Spirit, Logic, and Right

Plates
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199487502
• ISBN 13: 9780199487509
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336