Abstract
The objective of this paper is to analyse the fascinating ties between German transcendental philosophy of the 19th century and the Upanishadic and Buddhist thought, and the myriad ways in which these ties bear upon later European philosophy. My paper argues that Arthur Schopenhauer's World as Will and Idea - which heavily draws upon the Upanishads and Buddhism-is the point of provenance of what I describe as a Genealogy of Thought in western philosophy. Therefore in this paper I trace the influence of Schopenhauer-and in turn that of the Upanishads and Buddhism - in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida. These three thinkers are closely associated with the poststructuralist project. It is my contention that the antecedents of post structuralism can be discerned in the Upanishads and Buddhism. Many fundamental tenets of poststructuralist thought such as the deconstruction of binary opposites, the Heideggerian critique of presence and self, and non-linearity resonate certain key positions held by classical Indian philosophers. I further go on to argue that the genealogy of thought that I am tracing is at odds with what could be broadly described as traditional western metaphysics; that the influence of the Upanishads and Buddhism afforded the thinkers that I am discussing a critical reflection on western thought. For this reason postcolonial theorists such as Gayathri Spivak and Homi K. Bhabha freely avail themselves of poststructuralist theory. This is because poststructuralist theory, as I argue in this paper, has its roots in the colonial encounter itself.
Highlights
There are many affinities between post-structuralism and post colonialism
Bhabha seem to borrow their primary theoretical wherewithal from "western epistemology"-by and large the radical philosophical theories developed by philosophers such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and the latter's twentieth century successor Jacques Lacanin order to formulate a critique of western colonialism
I do not attempt to find "antecedents" or origins of post-structuralism in Eastern epistemology. Such quests for origins are inane and are rendered suspect after Michel Foucault's TheArchaeology of Knowledge; nor do I attempt to establish a genealogy of influence,.a tradition of ideas in Western epistemology that is informed by the Upanishads and Buddhism
Summary
There are many affinities between post-structuralism and post colonialism. Postcolonial theory freely draws upon the rich resources of post-structuralism in order to achieve its own epistemological and political ends. I will not attempt to establish direct lines of causal connection between two seemingly distinct systems of knowledge; nor am I claiming that post-structuralism would not have happened in the absence of the colonial encounter, that there are connections between Eastern and Western thought, that Eastern philosophy influenced 19th century German thought cannot be denied, It was arguably Arthur Schopenhauer who brought the Upanishads to the attention of European philosophy.
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