European Idealism Research Articles

Historiography of Yogācāra Philosophy in 20th Century India

Paradigms of historiography of philosophy in India have being changed since late 19th c. till present, depending on the social and cultural context of the history of Indian philosophy as a part of contemporary Indian culture. This change manifests itself in the conceptions of Indian historians concerning the teaching of Buddhist Mahāyāna school of Yogācāra (4th c. and later). Historians of colonial times, basing themselves on the philosophy of Neovedаntism (S. Radhakrishnan, S. Dasgupta), regarded Buddhism as a derivate of late Vedic culture and Yogācāra as a teaching that reflected - though in an essentially transmuted form - the ideology of Upaniṣads. The latter, according to Neovedantists, was based on the postulate of the existence of the single cosmic soul - Brahman, the true human Self (Ātman) being identical to it. Historians of the late colonial and early postcolonial times (P.T. Raju, D.P. Chattopadhyaya, A.K. Chatterjee, partly also S. Dasgupta) brought Yogācāra closer to the teachings of European idealism, mainly to conceptions of G. Berkeley, G.W.F. Hegel, F. Bradley, J.E. McTaggart, trying to demonstrate a principal identity of fundamental problems in Indian and Western philosophy. At the same time, they brought Yogācāra together with the teaching of Brāhmaṇic school, Advaita Vedānta, regarded as another form of Indian idealism. In later times, following the evolution of contemporary Indian culture and changings in its social and political context, historians like D.J. Kalupahana became to analyze Yogācāra as a kind of philosophy of mind. All these facts show the dependence of strategies of historico-philosophical studies in India on its social, political and cultural context: in the Yogācāra teaching mainly those aspects call attention that a historian sees as the closest to the problematic field of contemporary philosophy.

The Arab Spring Phenomenon and European Security: Change and Continuity under the Spectrum of Securitized Idealism

European security has historically been linked to the expectations-capabilities gap of the European Union (EU) as well as the EU’s role as a normative power reflected by the conscious choices made by European leaderships. Treaties have been the defining parameters of the operational ability, cognitive potential and institutional capacity of Europe to play a normative role in world politics. The Arab Spring phenomenon has illustrated the actual potential of the EU to act in unity. It has also shown that when inherent European idealism clashes with the realities of international politics, securitized idealism becomes the only viable choice. The concept bears a value-fact (security) oxymoron and is based on the need to balance security needs with the desire to spill over democracy in the Arab world.

European Procedures on Debt Collection: Nothing or Noting? Experiences and Future Prospects

This working paper emanates from a conference on European civil procedure (Uppsala, September 2013), and is expected to be published in a conference book in 2015.T he paper evaluates the experiences with the European order for payment procedure and the European small claims procedure, 5 years after their introduction. It discusses general impressions regarding the application of these procedures in the Member States and extent of their potential. The discussion is illustrated by drawing on the implementation of and practical experiences with these procedures in the Netherlands based on case law and empirical research. It reviews the Commission proposal to amend the Small Claims Regulation and the potential impact on the use and functioning of this procedure. It concludes that though experiences during the past five years have not all been positive, one should realise that any change and innovation in procedural law takes a long time to calibrate. Skepticism in relation to the European procedures, and particularly the ESCP, is understandable. However, it is a fact that the number of cross-border transactions is increasing and so are the disputes resulting from these. Most of the amendments that the Commission has proposed in relation to the ESCP − and that might be followed in the EOP revision − are realistic as to what the bottlenecks are. Nevertheless, one may argue as to how they may and can best be tackled, particularly in times of financial distress. As regards the European debt-collection procedures, there is still a great deal to do to raise awareness. For the European policy maker and legislature, along with the individual Member States, the time has come to invest in the further consolidation, implementation, and evaluation of the instruments. Empirical evidence concerning what works and what does not is of utmost importance, especially where European idealism and economic rhetoric no longer suffice as driving forces. Member States’ judges have to adopt a reactive approach in the application of the European civil procedures to fill in the gaps between European and domestic procedure in daily practice. Further, academics have a role to play and should contribute to shape the new architecture and to connect the dots of European civil procedure.

Beyond Western European Idealism: A Comparative Perspective on the Transnational Scope of Belgian Solidarity Movements with Nicaragua, Poland and South Africa in the 1980s

This article compares the mobilization of Belgian society for campaigns professing solidarity with three different issues in the 1980s: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the independent trade union Solidarność in the Polish People’s Republic, and the long struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It inquires into the ideological, social, and strategic similarities and differences between these movements, and does so in a broader context by connecting the 1980s with previous forms of transnational solidarity. First and foremost, it compares the differences in the forms of transnational collaboration between these three cases, regarding the actors, the different ideological frameworks in which they operated, and the relative importance of each. It highlights the active role of the political movements themselves – Sandinistas, visiting Solidarność members, and the South African ANC – who played a key role in the mobilization of activists in Western Europe – a fact which has so far largely been ignored.

COSMOPOLITAN SHAW AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE

In 1920, when G. B. Shaw, somewhat nostalgically, gave tribute to Vernon Lee's cosmopolitanism, contemporary readers may have wondered about implication, since World War I had radically changed meaning of term. Victorian cosmopolitanism, a product of European idealism and Kant's world at large, had become an ambivalent term under impact of British war propaganda with its emphasis on nationalism and patriotism. When Shaw applied term to Lee in 1920, international thinking had just begun to return to public sphere, but both writers' critical writing during war provides enough evidence that forms of cosmopolitan consciousness persevered at least among dissident groups even when national pressure demanded intellectual conformity. In fact, one may argue that independent public intellectuals like Shaw and Lee, despite their minority status in war, helped transform public sphere and what theorists since Kant have called the norm of publicity.1 While cosmopolitanism has recently made a comeback as a concept for rethinking global identities and attachments, nineteenth-century version of term basically meant hope for a united, cooperative Europe.2 In British literature, it could mean Anglo-European citizenship, and on Continent, Franco-German rapprochement.3 Cosmopolitanism became a contested concept at end of nineteenth century and, especially, around World War I. On one hand, term reflected anxi-

How Oakeshott Became an Oakeshottean

Two ideas lie at the heart of Oakeshott’s philosophy: the notion of the inherent plurality of modern experience and the notion of a modern state as a purposeless civil association. These ideas signify Oakeshott’s rejection of the intellectual tradition of British Idealism by which he was influenced in his twenties. The breaking point was the publication of Experience and its Modes, although, with regard to social philosophy, the process of the abandonment of holistic Idealism lasted longer and was completed only with the publication of On Human Conduct. The main difference between Oakeshott and other British Idealists lies in his radical rejection of methodological holism. It is suggested that this rejection might be an outcome of influences of continental philosophical traditions, and that Oakeshott’s philosophy is especially indebted to the ideas of the fragmentation of experience prevalent in Central European Idealism, and particularly in neo-Kantianism.

Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation (review)

Reviewed by: Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation Edward R. Falls Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation. By Jay L. Garfield. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 306 + xi pp. Jay L. Garfield's Empty Words is a collection of (mostly) previously published essays bearing on the interpretation of Buddhist thought. Emphasizing the Indo-Tibetan tradition while indebted to Euro-American philosophy, Empty Words belongs in a class with books such as Tom Tillemans's Scripture, Logic and Language: Essays on Dharmakīrti and His Tibetan Successors (1999) and Matthew Kapstein's Reason's Traces: Identity and Interpretation in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Thought (2001). Below is a précis of Empty Words, followed by remarks on some points that especially caught this reviewer's interest. The essays in Empty Words are gathered into three sections according to subject matter: (1) Madhyamaka, (2) Yogācāra, and (3) Ethics and Hermeneutics. There are five essays in section 1, clustered around three themes: Nāgārjuna's theory of causality (ch. 2, 4), parallels between Madhyamaka and the European skeptical tradition (ch. 1), and paradox in Madhyamaka (ch. 3, 5). Section 2 begins with an essay interpreting Vasubandhu on the three natures and three naturelessnesses, arguing that "Vasubandhu subordinates the naturelessnesses [End Page 196] to the natures pedagogically and describes them as characteristics of, but not (with the exception of the third) identical to the three natures" (p. 121). As for the other three essays in section 2, chapter 7 consists of a translation of and commentary on Vasubandhu's Trisvabhāvanirdes´a, chapter 8 presents an interesting experiment in cross-cultural interpretation in which the history of European idealism is viewed through a Buddhist idealist lens, and chapter 9 (one of the two previously unpublished essays in Empty Words—ch. 14 is the other) attempts to bring together Garfield's views on the limits of expressibility in Madhyamaka and his interpretation of the three natures in Yogācāra. Section 3 includes three essays concerning issues in ethics or political philosophy and two essays discussing the hermeneutical issues involved when Euro-American and Tibetan philosophers attempt to understand each other's traditions. The topics of the former essays are as follows. Is the Dalai Lama's advocacy of human rights (which are grounded in liberal moral theory) compatible with Buddhist ethics, which emphasizes a compassion-based morality (ch. 10)? Are Buddhist values and democracy incompatible (ch. 11)? How does Samdhong Rinpoche's approach to nonviolence relate to Gandhi's (ch. 12)? In the final two essays of the book, Garfield advocates a strategy of cross-cultural interpretation which would avoid the pitfall of orientalism, drawing heavily on Gadamerian-Heideggerian hermeneutics. The remarks that follow bear exclusively on points from essays in section 1 on Madhyamaka. In chapter 4, Garfield critiques the claim, attributed to Dharmakīrti (by rGyal tshab in his commentary on the pramānasiddhi chapter of Pramānavarttika) that belief in rebirth is necessary for the cultivation of bodhicitta. Garfield argues that if this claim is correct, then the "I" in the bodhisattva vow is doing real metaphysical work, functioning as the basis for a real causal relation, contra Nāgārjuna's analysis of causality (which is supposed to involve the rejection of real causal powers). Otherwise, a simpler account of bodhicitta would suffice, in which striving for personal enlightenment could be replaced by striving for someone's attaining enlightenment some time in the future. On this account, practitioners would resolve to contribute to the accumulation of causes of someone's eventually attaining enlightenment, where this accumulation of causes turns out to be something like "universal moral improvement." But what if practitioners just do not know how to bring about universal moral improvement? Garfield acknowledges that buddhas sometimes act counter to the "moral" good, and this suggests an important cognitive difference between buddhas and ordinary beings: ordinary beings can only (fallibly) infer what the best thing to do is, whereas buddhas simply know. Hence, the importance, from a practitioner's standpoint, of the Buddha's teaching, which is a path of personal attainment (and who knows whether it is incidentally a...

Visuotinybė pažinimo procese

Straipsnyje analizuojama rusų filosofo Vladimiro Solovjovo filosofijos visuotinybės principas. Teigiama, kad šis principas jo filosofijoje taikomas ne tik ontologijoje ir visuomenės teorijoje, bet ir gnoseologijoje. Visuotinybė pažinimo teorijoje reiškia, kad įveikiama subjekto ir objekto priešprieša, pašalinamas dualizmas. Kadangi subjektas ir objektas yra visuotinybės nariai, tai tarp jų nėra substancinio skirtumo. Visuotinybė yra pasaulio prasmė ir protas, paslėpta pasaulio tiesa, tikrasis pasaulio elementų santykis, tai, kas turi būti aktualizuota pasauliniame visuotinybės tapimo procese. V. Solovjovui absoliuti tiesa – hipostazuotas reiškinių sąryšis – yra sustingusi, amžina mistinė pasaulio tvarka, iš karto ir visiškai atsiskleidžianti momentiniame pažinimo akte. Pagrindiniai V. Solovjovo pažinimo teorijos elementai yra intelektinė intuicija, ekstazė, mistinis stebėjimas. Pažinimo aktą sudaro tikėjimas besąlygine daikto būtimi, intelektinė daikto idėjos intuicija (vaizduotė) ir kūrybinis proto aktas.

Thomism and the New Theology

THOMISM AND THE NEW THEOLOGY* T HAT World War IT would bring with it, not merely great changes in the material fortunes of many nations, but also radical changes in the world of thought, was something which could have been forseen by a glance at the history of human thought throughout the ages. Even before the outbreak of hostilities it was evident that the great civil universities of Europe were in the grip of philosophies which were anti-christian in character, derived as they were from Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Engels. Once the frontiers of Europe were opened for inspection after the liberation it soon became clear that a new factor had arrived on the scene. This was a new philosophy, difficult to define, even by those who taught it, but nevertheless of great influence, especially in France. This new philosophy was given the name of Existentialism. Now, it is also a fact of history that few philosophies come into being without having an influence, sooner or later, on the science of Theology, and so it was natural that the theologian should wait, with a certain degree of apprehension, the result of the impact of these philosophies, especially Existentialism, on Catholic thought. This was even more important in the present case, since a flourishing school of Catholic existentialists already existed in France and in some other countries. By the year 1946 controversies in several ecclesiastical reviews made it quite clear that the apprehensions were more than justified.1 In that same year, in the course of two Allocutions, one to the General Chapter of the Friars Preachers and the other to the Jesuits, the Pope himself made some references to * This article was written and accepted for publication prior to the appearence of the recent papal encyclical, Humani Generia. Hence, the author makes no reference to that important document but his article gains significance in the light of the Holy Father's words.-En. 1 Cf. M. Labourdette, 0. P. "La Theologie et ses sources," Revue Tkomiste, 56 (1946), 858-871, and J. Danielou, "Les orientations presentes de Ia pensee religieuse ," Etudea, !l49 (April, 1946). 567 568 DAVID L. GREENSTOCK what he called a" new theology." 2 He pointed out that, while questions hitherto in dispute among Catholic theologians were still important and by no means to be neglected, nevertheless, the modern problem which confronts all theologians, no matter to what " school " they belong, is the defense of the very foundations of the perennial philosophy and theology, foundations which every intellect calling itself Catholic both recognizes and venerates. The very centre of the problem touches upon the intimate relations between the human intellect and that faith which has been revealed to man by God. How far is the intellect capable of penetrating into those truths in order to deduce from them, by a process of reasoning, other truths which are connected with them? Above all, what is the value of such conclusion? In his Allocution to the Jesuits the Pope mentioned the new theology by name: " There is a good deal of talk (but without the necessary clarity of concept), about a 'new theology,' which must be in constant transformation, following the example of all other things in the world, which a:re in a constant state of flux .and movement, without ever :reaching their term. If we were to accept such an opinion what would become of the unchangeable dogmas of the Catholic Faith; and what would become of the unity and stability of that Faith? " In spite of these words of warning so solemnly delivered by the Vicar of Christ, discussion and controversy still continued, and on the twenty-third of November, 1949, the spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, speaking to a packed audience in the Barcelo cinema, Madrid, declared that European Idealism as a philosophical system had been overcome and superseded by another and a more modern system, so too had Aristotelianism. He then continued: " I am able to announce to you that the Roman, Catholic, Apostolic Church is about to :relinquish both Aristotelianism and Thomism; and that a new theology is being forged which is in close relationship with that of the Greek Fathers." 3 2...

Plotinus and India

One of the most interesting recent attempts to interpret the peculiarities of Plotinus's philosophy is that of Bréhier in his ‘La Philosophie de Plotin’(Bibl. de la Revue des Cours et Conférences, Boivin, Paris, 1928). His thesis, contained in the last four chapters of the work, is that Plotinus, instead of being simply the continuator of the Greek rationalist tradition, is the founder of modern European Idealism, or, perhaps more accurately, Pantheism. ‘Avec Plotin nous saisissons done le premier chatnon d'une tradition religieuse qui n'est pas moins puissante au fond en Occident que la tradition chretienne …’. He is the spiritual ancestor of Spinoza and Hegel. It is interesting in passing to compare this view with that of Dean Inge, for whom Plotinus is the spiritual begetter of S. Thomas Aquinas. The divergences of modern interpreters of the Plotinian metaphysic are often both amusing and suggestive.