Product Description

India has a long, rich, and diverse tradition of philosophical thought, spanning some two and a half millennia and encompassing several major religious traditions. This Very Short Introduction emphasizes the diversity of Indian thought, and is structured around six schools which have achieved classic status. Sue Hamilton explores how the traditions have attempted to understand the nature of reality in terms of an inner or spiritual quest, and introduces distinctively Indian concepts such as karma and rebirth. She also shows how Indian thinkers have understood issues of reality and knowledge -- issues which are also an important part of the Western philosophical tradition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68791 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

About the Author
Sue Hamilton is a member of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College, London. Her publications include Early Buddhism: A New Approach (2000), and she is co-editor (with Peter Connolly) of Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism and Bhakti (1997).

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of compression
This is a jewel of a book. Skilfully using choronology, historical context and a typology of Indian views of reality as a framework, it sets the vast diversity of ancient Indian philosophy into a comprehensible form. But in doing so, on the other hand, it never loses sight of the way that simplification might misrepresent the diversity. And, moreover, it never lets its classifications obscure the fact that Indian philosophers combined reason and faith in a way unfamiliar to the Westerner.

"Indian Philosophy, a Very Short Introduction" runs through the different darshanas (viewpoints) of the ancient Indian philosophers. It makes a detour for Buddhism, but accepts that the Very Short Introduction format does not permit Jainism and Sikhism to be covered. The underpinnings of the Buddhist worldview are particularly well-explained.

The text is as easy to read as can be hoped for such a complex subject. Although it is easy to confuse the various darshanas, they are signposted by the handy chronologies that are interspersed among the different chapters. One minor complaint is that the "Very Short Introduction" format resembles a word-processed mimeograph shrunk to A5 size, and is over-priced as such.

Have the words 'accessible' and 'lucid' been redefined? I must have missed that meeting...
Richard Gombrich of Oxford University describes this book as 'lucid' and Damien Keown of London University describes it as 'accessible'.

Really? By page two I am reading (or should that be 'trying to navigate') a 96-word sentence, complete with parentheses, two semicolons and two uses of the phrase 'and/or'.

By page three, I am reading:

"We also know that at least part of what is not-God is both plural (all the individual souls)and everlasting. Less abstractly, this last point tells us something important about the nature of human beings, in themselves a part of reality that might be comprised in any of a number of ways. And in addition to this, we know that some kind of system of causation links present behaviour to an unknown future mode of existence."

I'm afraid that beginning a sentence with the words "Less abstractedly" does not render what follows less abstract.

Overall, a disappointing book that definitely doesn't do what it says on the tin. I gave up and my largely unread copy is now for sale on Amazon Marketplace. I don't recommend it to you.

A reliable and readable introduction
This excellent entry in the VSI series would serve as a good introduction to philosophy in general, as it takes pains to define terms like metaphysics, epistemology, exegesis and soteriology, basic terminology that might be new to the non-specialist. It is a scholarly but very readable account, with useful illustrations.

In the nineteenth century, specific schools of thought were presented to the West as 'Hinduism' or 'Indian philosophy', and these views - polytheistic and monistic - are very often still regarded as representative. This is rather like presenting Lutheranism as 'European religion' and Existentialism as 'European philosophy'. Another excellent book in this series - Hinduism, by Kim Knott - corrects the first misapprehension, and this present book corrects the second.

Philosophy and religion have combined in Indian thought in a way that differs from the Western tradition - at least, since Kant and the Enlightenment. Thus, a work like this invites us to approach philosophical enquiry in a new way, or at least to recognize an alternative approach.

Like all the authors in this series, Hamilton has the problem of encapsulating a vast subject into a small space. In Chapter 1, the author describes the selections she has made and why she has made them - in particular, why she chose to exclude Jainism. The book concentrates on the classical period beginning in the 5th century BC (interestingly, a history of Western philosophy would likely begin in the same era, with the same backward glance at the religious and mythical traditions from which it evolved). The 6 classical darsanas are mentioned, and enough authors and texts are referenced to give you plenty of scope for further study, if you wished.

Highly recommended.
[PeterReeve]