10th SOAS World Philosophies Lecture: Humanism in Contemporary Indian Philosophy
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2022-10-05

Title:
10th SOAS World Philosophies Lecture: Humanism in Contemporary Indian Philosophy, by Elise Coquereau-Saouma

Summary:
Contemporary Indian philosophy is not very standardly defined. There are neither specific topics that could be singled out, nor a precise canon in which philosophers ought (or not) to be included, nor a definite recognizable method or language in which it is written. This leaves great freedom and space for philosophical novelty, but also room for prejudices and absences. Because contemporary Indian philosophy tends to be read as interpretations of classical Sanskrit Indian philosophy, and evaluated according to its (in)authentic rendering of ‘original’ texts, its inner diversity is usually overlooked. Most often a few representatives are put in the forefront, such as Tagore, Sri Aurobindo or Gandhi, the intellectual and/or revolutionary leaders whose influence transcends their heritage. Addressing this limitation, I focus in this talk on the concept of ‘humanism’ to articulate the multidirectional and dialogical dimension of contemporary Indian philosophy. I show how the debate around the humanistic nature of Indian philosophy engages at once with Western phenomenology and philosophical anthropology, with the classical concepts of ātman (Self) and mokṣa (liberation), and with apparently contradicting concepts of humanism - a spiritualist humanism (in particular following P. T. Raju and Radhakrishnan) and a rationalist, scientific humanism, following M. N. Roy and D. P. Chattopadhyaya. Thus, I present the debate on the humanistic nature of Indian philosophy as a prism to introduce the complexity and diversity of contemporary Indian philosophy.

Speaker Bio:
Elise Coquereau-Saouma is the recipient of an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship (Austrian Science Fund) and a research affiliate at Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). She works on intercultural philosophy, in particular on contemporary Indian philosophy. She is the co-editor with E. Freschi of a special issue of Sophia on ‘The Challenge of Postcolonial Philosophy in India: Too Alien for Contemporary Philosophers, too Modern for Sanskritists?’ (2018) and is preparing two monographs for Routledge: Intercultural Dialogues: Conceptions, Divergences and Limits; and Creativity of Knowledge and Intercultural Dialogue: Thinking with Daya Krishna.