Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Book excerpt: Contemporary Indian Philosophy has arisen in awareness of the need to reconcile the forces of tradition with those of modernity. It is not merely repetitive. There is, in it, a definite attempt to construct a system. It develops under the conviction that the basic aim of Philosophy is to cultivate a world-view. This requires an awareness of the existential condition of life as also the con-sciousness of life s ulti-mate ideal, viz., redem-ption, not only of the individual, but of the total human race. It emphasises the ultimacy of spiritual values; yet it demonstrates that the roots of spiritual life lie in conditions that are essentially existential. The present study seeks to highlight these aspects of Contemporary Indian Philosophy. It is an attempt to rethink, in an academic manner, the thoughts of the contemporary thinkers, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, S. Radhakrishnan, and Mohammad Iqbal. Different aspects of their thoughts have been systematised, categorised and placed under suitable philosophical heads in this work.