Eastern Philosophy

by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad

In a bold new approach to philosophical studies, Dr. Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad presents a comprehensive survey of over 3000 years of Eastern thought from a decidedly non-Western perspective. A renowned expert in Eastern Philosophy, Dr. Ram-Prasad offers up an engaging examination of the great Asian philosophies on their own terms, along the way dispelling popular Western misconceptions about Eastern wisdom. Broad enough to encompass the full range of Eastern philosophies--from Buddhism to Daoism to Jainism--while also conveying the subtle beauty of each distinct tradition, this is a truly indispensable guide to the philosophical culture of the East.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Amith · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
I picked up this book primarily to get a taste of the different schools of thought in Indian Philosophy, about which I knew barely anything. The book is divided into seven chapters- the ultimate questions, the self, Outward & Inward good, knowledge, logic and language. The author explains the take of different schools (Indian and Chinese) on these topics and compares them in some places.

This was not an easy book to read. I think it mainly boils down to the complexity of the ideas conveyed. The author does provide pretty good examples in the form of analogies to explain them. But he could have done more in the form of some diagrams to help keep track of the many people he talks about and the positions of different schools. The book is full of text for 242 pages and just ends abruptly with the last chapter. The author focuses on the ideological debates that arose between different schools, like the Buddhist vs Hindu debate over the existence of self, which were great to read.

This book helped me put into perspective the evolution of different Hindu and heterodox schools of thought like Jainism and Buddhism and appreciate them for their original ideas. Hence as an introduction to Eastern Philosophy, the book does meet its objectives but it could be better.

[Distorted Memories (Sunny) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book about epistemology and so it is a bit hard to follow along for normal reader like me who probably has no idea about all the eastern religion based philosophy like confucianism or Jainism. As I have studied advaita vedanta by myself i was able to follow a bit here and there but it mostly went above my head. As this on epistemology I am rating it 3 star because I don't study philosophy on academic level, so maybe it is relevant for people from academic perspective. From the title I expected the contents to be very different in the book but this book just made me feel dumb and made me realise that I need study more to understand philosophies to expand my mind and knowledge.

[Sumit · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of Indian, Buddhist, Japanese and Chinese philosophy on topics like self, inward and outward good, language, logic, knowledge.

[Ong Kuan Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of Eastern philosophy and comparisons amongst them.

[Fahad Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a beginner when it comes to Eastern Philosophy so I can't say if this book gives a good enough introduction to the two main traditions that it covers, the Indian and the Chinese (from his bio the author seems to be primarily a scholar of Indian Philosophy). But it was well written, engaging and gave me a lot to follow up on. The author could have skipped on the last chapter on Logic, however, as it doesn't really seem to have the centrality that it does in the Western tradition.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes fascinating comparison between Indian and Chinese (historical, religious) philosophies

[Shivaji Das · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unstructured and hard to follow. Perhaps there is nothing called Eastern Philosophy as an unified theory as the author rightly claims in the beginning.