Postmodernism and Sri Aurobindo

Abstract

AbstractThis article considers the features of postmodernity, cultural postmodernism and philosophical postmodernism and assesses the philosophy and praxis of Sri Aurobindo against these features. In developing the common ideas of philosophical postmodernism, the article considers its major thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, along with their predecessors, such as Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche. As a junior contemporary of Nietzsche and a senior contemporary of Heidegger, Sri Aurobindo is located historically with them as a predecessor of postmodernism. The article considers his views in terms of the epistemic shift from modernism to postmodernism and attempts to characterize the individual and social specificity of postmodern praxis in his teaching, as well as in that of his spiritual partner and collaborator, Mirra Alfassa, aka the Mother. KeywordsPostmodernityCultural postmodernismPhilosophical postmodernismNietzscheHeideggerFoucaultDeleuzeSri AurobindoIntegral yogaAnarchismAuroville