Nalini Bhushan and Jay L. Garfield
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199769261
- eISBN:
- 9780190267605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199769261.003.0016
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter presents an excerpt from Ramchandra Dattatraya Ranade's book, Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy (1926), in which he emphasizes the centrality of a psychological approach, as ...
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This chapter presents an excerpt from Ramchandra Dattatraya Ranade's book, Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy (1926), in which he emphasizes the centrality of a psychological approach, as opposed to a theological approach, to understanding ultimate reality. Ranade was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Allahabad. He specialized initially in classical Greek philosophy, with special attention to the pre-Socratics, but was also an eminent scholar of the Upanisads. His Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy is widely regarded as a classic in the field. In the chapter “The Problem of Ultimate Reality in the Upanishads,” Ranade explores what he calls the supreme philosophical problem: What, if any, is the core of Upanisadic teaching? He also considers the three approaches to this problem in the history of thought—cosmological, theological, and psychological; the cosmological argument for the existence of God; regress from polytheism to monotheism under the theological approach; and the epistemology and metaphysics of self-consciousness.Less
This chapter presents an excerpt from Ramchandra Dattatraya Ranade's book, Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy (1926), in which he emphasizes the centrality of a psychological approach, as opposed to a theological approach, to understanding ultimate reality. Ranade was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Allahabad. He specialized initially in classical Greek philosophy, with special attention to the pre-Socratics, but was also an eminent scholar of the Upanisads. His Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy is widely regarded as a classic in the field. In the chapter “The Problem of Ultimate Reality in the Upanishads,” Ranade explores what he calls the supreme philosophical problem: What, if any, is the core of Upanisadic teaching? He also considers the three approaches to this problem in the history of thought—cosmological, theological, and psychological; the cosmological argument for the existence of God; regress from polytheism to monotheism under the theological approach; and the epistemology and metaphysics of self-consciousness.
