Three Lectures On The Vedanta Philosophy

by F. Max Müller

THREE INTRODUCTORY LECTURES on the VedAnta philosophy
LECTURE I. Origin of the VedAnta Philosophy. The Importance of Philosophy. I am fully aware of the difficulties which I shall have to encounter in trying to enlist your interest, nay, if possible, your sympathy, for an ancient system of Indian Philosophy, the VedAnta Philosophy. It is no easy task, even within the walls of this scientific Institution, to obtain a hearing for a mere system of philosophy, whether new or old. The world is too busy to listen to purely theoretical speculations; it wants exciting experiments and, if possible, tangible results. And yet I remember one who ought to be well known to all of you in this place, I remember our dear friend Tyndall, rejoicing over a new theory.
TABLE OF CONTENTS; FIRST LECTURE. Origin of the VedAnta Philosophy; The Importance of Philosophy; What is important and what is merely curious; The Importance of the VedAnta Philosophy ; Opinions of the VedAnta by Schopenhauer, Sir W Jones,; Victor Cousin, F Schlegel; The VedAnta, both Philosophy and Religion ; The Upanishads as VedAnta; The Four Stages of Life; Relation of the Soul (Atman) to Brahman (the Parama-; Atman); Unsystematic Character of the Upanishads; Growth of Religious and Philosophic Thought before; the Upanishads; Belief in one God; Two Forms of the VedAnta; The Upanishads treated as Revealed, not as Historical Books; Moral Preparation for the Study of the VedAnta; Mistrust in the Evidence of the Senses; Metaphorical Language of the Upanishads;
TABLE OF CONTENTS; SECOND LECTURE The Soul and God; Extracts from the Upanishads; From the Katha Upanishad; From the Maitrayani Upanishad; Sankara's Analysis of Subject and Object; The Inheritance of the VedAnta; No Esoteric VedAnta; Relation between the Higher Brahman and the Lower Brahman

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Genres: Philosophy

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Friedrich Max Müller, K.M. (Ph.D., Philology, Leipzig University, 1843)—generally known as Max Müller or F. Max Müller—was the first Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University, and an Orientalist who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology and the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction.

Müller became a naturalized British citizen in 1855. In 1869, he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as a foreign correspondent. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite (civil class) in 1874, and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art the following year. In 1888, he was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, delivering the first in what has proved to be an ongoing, annual series of lectures at several Scottish universities to the present day. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1896.

His wife, Georgina Adelaide Müller was also an author. After Max's death, she deposited his papers at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.