Philosophy and Method

Abstract

Sundar Sarukkai tells us that the idea of method has a long history that can be traced back to the Indian and Greek philosophical traditions. He characterises method as a series of steps and/or a set of rules to be followed for specific reasons and for reaching some desired goal. But the notion of method itself is an object of philosophical enquiry, and hence, philosophy’s enquiry on method is a self-reflexive one. With this significant caveat, Sarukkai invites the reader to his own approach that focuses on the idea of method and offers a more inclusive understanding of philosophy by drawing on examples from Indian philosophy. He contends that while there is no paucity of literature on philosophical traditions in Asia and Africa, any discussion on method gets restricted to the small group of ‘Western’ philosophers.