New Essays in the Philosophy of Sarvepali Radhakrishnan

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The essays included in this volume are revised version of papers presented at the Radhakrishnan Centennial Conference held at Miami in April 1988. The essays included in this volume are not merely a repetition of the old themes. They contains new perspectives on Radhakrishnan. It is sign of a great philosopher that he is read and re-read, criticized and defended continuously. This volume is also comprehensive in dealing exhaustively all the important aspects of his thought. The volume contains essays by the following contributors : Paul Arthur Schilpp, Visvaldis V. Klive, Robert N. Minor, Alex A Wayman, B.K. Matilal, Christopher Chapple, Troy Organ, Krishna Mallick, George Chemparathy, S. Gopalan, David M. Brookman, Narayan Champawaat, Harry Buck, J.G. Arapura, Anindita N. Balslev, Ishwar C. Harris, Donald Tuck, Boyd Wilson, S.S,. Rama Rao Pappu, John M. Koller, Purusottama Bilimoria, Richard Stadelman, Carl Olson, K. Sundaram, Hope K. Fitz, Judy Saltzman, Arindarn Chakravarty, Sakuntala Gangadharam, B David Burke, Robert M. Kleinman, Kevin Sullivan, Anil Sarkar, Anand Mohan, Yeager Hodson, T.S. Devadoss, Kaisai Puhakka, Fred G'. Sturm, and Jerald Richards.

Professor S. S. Rama Rao Pappu is at the Department of Philosophy, Miami University, USA.

Foreword

This collection of new essays’ on Radhakrishnan’s personality and thinking is the most comprehensive to come out after the volume on his philosophy edited by P.A. Schilpp; This contains 38 essays dealing almost exhaustively with different aspects of his thought.

Till today Radhakrishnan is the only Indian philosopher who has expounded in English a particular type of idealism in a most charming and elegant manner. In its own way his idealism is an original development, under the influence of western philosophy, of what he takes to be the Upanishadic view. He contends that the highest value and the truly real are inseparable. The; Absolute is real, consciousness and freedom. Sometimes he substitutes "delight" or "spirit” for "freedom’. The real (he wrote) includes ideas and if these are interpreted as ideals or values, an idealist view of the universe results. Such a view, according to him, finds the universe to be meaningful I and life to be purposeful.

For years before he came to occupy high offices Radhakrishnan devoted himself to develope what he called a self-understanding of religion and a fitting of religious convictions with facts known, from empirical experience and science. He took this endeavour to be an exposition of and exhortation to spirituality. He believed that the fundamental spiritual conviction is “the consubstantiality of the spirit in man and God. He also phrased it thus: that which is in the very centre of man’s being is akin to the Supreme. He also spoke of the unity of the universe and its being essentially Spirit. He expressed these ideas beautifully and attractively. The papers in this book have evaluated his work in various ways.

Quite from an early age Radhakrishnan began concerning himself with civilizational, national, social, ethical and political issues. He read, thought and expressed views on them. As Vice- President and President of India he spoke often on democracy, secularism and other subjects. These later speeches of his are as important as what he wrote and spoke earlier; perhaps in these spontaneous outpourings there is more originality than in his writing and earlier speeches.

It is to Radhakrishnan’s Indian —Philosophy and his translations and commentaries of the Upanishads and Gita that the interested Indian elite (e.g. Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan) turned in the intra-war period. From 1952 to 1967 when Radhakrishnan was in high offices of State, not only his writings attained greater vogue, but the media daily communicated to the Indian people what he was saying on things which mattered to them. During this period he travelled extensively all over the world receiving numerous honours and making impact on very important persons as well as on ordinary people. Academic Indian philosophy was more or less symbolised by him; by and large people considered that only what he wrote and said was Indian Philosophy. There were of course philosophers in universities, some in Indian and more in other countries, who did not think so. But India has not yet produced a University Professor of Philosophy who has exerted greater influence than him on its people.

Professor S.S. Rama Rao Pappu has been making an invaluable contribution to the promotion and propagation of Indian philosophy through his conferences at Miami University. The conference on Radhakrishnan organised by him, judging by the number and quality of its paticipants, is one of the most successful among them. This volume will bear permanent witness to this. I hope it will be read widely.

Preface

The essays included in this volume are revisions of papers originally presented in the Radhakrishnan Centennial Conference I Had organized at Miami University in April, 1988. Due to circumstances beyond my control, the publication of these "new essays" was delayed, but the delay did not fortunately make them "old." Only three papers in this volume were published in philosophy journals elsewhere. They are now reprinted in this volume. Unfortunately, however, three contributors to this volume, B. K Matilal, Troy Organ and Paul Arthur Schilpp did not live to see this volume in print. This volume is dedicated to the memory of these three scholars.

There are, it seems to me, four anthologies consisting of essays on Radhakrishnan, the earliest and the most erudite being Paul Schilpp’s Library of Living Philosophers’ volume on The Philosophy of Sarvepalli-Radhakvishnan published in 1952. The essays included in this volume are not merely a repetition of the old themes. They contain new perspectives on Radhakrishnan. It is the sign of a great philosopher that he is read and re-read, criticized and defended continuously. This continuous evaluation is a sign of vitality of a great philosopher, not an exercise in superfluity. That these essays are appearing almost fifty years after the publication of Paul Schilpp’s volume in the Library of Living Philosophers is an indication that Radhakrishnan’s volume philosophy is alive and thriving. Indian philosophers have lived in the shadow of Radhakrishnan during his life—time. Though recent trends in Indian philosophy seems to be a struggle to walk away from Radhakrishnan’s shadow, he has entered the Indian philosophic consciousness so deeply that it will take some time to be weaned away from Radhakrishnan’s influences. A review of the contents of the present volume will reveal that most of the contributors to the volume live in the West and are taking an "external" point of view on Radhakrishnan both in time and distance. This volume is also comprehensive in covering all important aspects of Radhakrishnan’s thought. Last but not least, these essays are also written as a tribute to a great philosopher on the centennial of his birth anniversary.

My work as Editor of this volume was made easier and enjoyable because of the help given by many friends, especially K. Satchidananda Murty for writing the Foreword to this volume, Purusottama Bilimoria, General Editor of the series, Naresh Gupta of the Indian Books Centre who has patiently waited for the manuscript to reach his hands and who has expeditiously printed it when it has reached him. My thanks are also due to Miami University for providing me a modest grant to organize the Radhakrishnan Conference and finally to my wife, Suryakantham, who knew the Radhakrishnan family since childhood and has provided me some missing biographical insights about Radhakrishnan.