Tradition

Indian philosophy

Overview

Indian philosophy consists of philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. These philosophical traditions are often called darśana, meaning "to see" or "looking at." Ānvīkṣikī means “critical inquiry” or “investigation." Unlike darśana, ānvīkṣikī was used to refer to Indian philosophies by classical Indian philosophers, such as Kautilya in the Arthaśāstra.

A traditional Vedic classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Vedas as a valid source of knowledge; whether the school believes in the premises of Brahman and Atman; and whether the school believes in afterlife and Devas. (though there are exceptions to the latter two: Mimamsa and Samkhya respectively).

There are six major (āstika) schools of Vedic philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta—and five major non-Vedic or heterodox (nāstika or sramanic) schools—Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Ajñana, and Charvaka. The āstika group embraces the Vedas as an essential source of its foundations, while the nāstika group does not. However, there are other methods of classification; Vidyaranya for instance identifies sixteen schools of Indian philosophy by including those that belong to the Śaiva and Raseśvara traditions.

The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalised and recognised chiefly between 500 BCE and the late centuries of the Common Era. Some schools like Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, Śaiva and Vedanta survived, but others, like Ajñana, Charvaka and Ājīvika did not.

Ancient and medieval era texts of Indian philosophies include extensive discussions on ontology (metaphysics, Brahman-Atman, Sunyata-Anatta), reliable means of knowledge (epistemology, Pramanas), value system (axiology) and other topics.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Indian philosophy is discussed.

The one part, which really is orthodox, has no other purpose than to make the deliverances of the Vedas clearer, or to derive from the text of these original treatises an ingeniously thought-out Psychology. This system is called Mimansa, and two schools proceed from it. Distinguished from these there are other systems, amongst which the two chief are those of the Sanc’hya and Nyaya. The former again divides into two…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
But all philosophy is either cognition on the basis of pure reason, or the cognition of reason on the basis of empirical principles. The former is termed pure, the latter empirical philosophy. The philosophy of pure reason is either propædeutic, that is, an inquiry into the powers of reason in regard to pure à priori cognition, and is termed critical philosophy; or it is, secondly, the system of pure reason—a…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
For all such historical philosophy, whatever airs it may give itself, regards _time_ just as if Kant had never lived, as a quality of the thing-in-itself, and thus stops at that which Kant calls the phenomenon in opposition to the thing-in-itself; which Plato calls the becoming and never being, in opposition to the being and never becoming; and which, finally, is called in the Indian philosophy the web of Mâya.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
states what it is; author linked in the graph; names the idea
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Grammar, for example, is studied more diligently than ever without any one seeing the necessity of a rigorous training in speech and writing. The gates of Indian antiquity are being opened, and the scholars have no more idea of the most imperishable works of the Indians--their philosophies--than a beast has of playing the harp; though Schopenhauer thinks that the acquaintance with Indian philosophy is one of the…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts Out of Season, Part II
states what it is; names the idea
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Thus far we have seen the theories of these Advaitist philosophers, how there is but one _Âtman_; there cannot be two. We have seen how in the whole of this universe there is but One Existence, and that One Existence when seen through the senses is called the world, the world of matter. When It is seen through the mind It is called the world of thoughts and ideas, and when It is seen as it is, then It is the One…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
states what it is
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Philosophers who discussed Indian philosophy

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Outline of philosophy.

Narrower topics:

Explore Indian philosophy in the interactive graph →