From Things to Needs

Abstract

The presence of a lively and versatile philosophical tradition in a culture is an aspect of its liberal character. An understanding of the human condition that every philosophical tradition searches for requires a critical engagement with other dominant systems of knowledge. At the same time, for a philosophical tradition to be significantly critical, it must develop tools and discourses to critically examine its own edifice of knowledge. Without such self-reflective openness, the tradition becomes obsolete and a source of dogma. It may be justly complained that, unlike Western philosophy, classical Indian philosophy has lost its relevance because it has never interacted with the vast edifice of European science. After centuries of inactivity, classical Indian philosophy might have lost its ability to interact with modern science forever. But this isolation may be a virtue in that Western philosophy may now be facing a lack of relevance due to the development of the cognitive sciences. This conclusion might be reached if philosophy is assumed to have the same explanatory goal as science. In contrast, a quick look at the origin and form of Indian philosophy suggests that its goals might not have been to discover properties of the world at all. A salient goal for philosophical inquiry, distinct from the sciences, could be to formulate conditions of human reflective needs for cognitive agents to lead rational lives.