India and the West: A Synthesis

Abstract

ALL THEOLOGICAL THINKING must, in the last analysis, be philosophical thinking, if by philosophical thinking one understands no more than rational reflection which will appeal to no other authority than to its own inherent plausibility and reasonableness. Reason, Locke wrote, be our last judge and guide in everything. I do not mean that we must consult reason, and examine whether a proposition revealed from God can be made out by natural principles, and, if it cannot, that then we may reject it: but consult it we must, and by it examine whether it be a revelation from God or no: and if reason finds it to be revealed from God, reason then declares for it as much as for any other truth, and makes it one of her dictates.' The same, mutatis mutandis, might be said of scientific thinking, for, although scientific thinking must appeal ultimately to observed facts, there can be no denying that only rational reflection can decide what is and what is not to be considered a relevant fact. It is perfectly true, therefore, that philosophy is the queen of all sciences without exception-whether they be concerned with our attempts to control our environment or with our search for redemption from the situation in which we have to attempt to control our environment. It was only during the European Middle Ages that serious thinking became saddled with the unfortunate distinction between philosophy and theology. Neither the Indians nor the Greeks nor modern philosophers like Whitehead and Bergson could ever think profitably in terms of such a distinction.