Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
At the heart of all religions lies direct spiritual experience, and the Indian view that all reality is one spirit makes best sense of it.
Placement
Philosopher and later President of India: interpreted Advaita Vedanta as a philosophy of intuitive experience and became a central voice of comparative philosophy.
Key ideas
- Intuition and religious experience
- Idealist view of life
- East–West comparison
Influence
Influenced by 3
Adi Shankara
influenced by
Radhakrishnan saw Shankara’s Advaita as the high point of Indian thought but read maya as the world’s dependence on Brahman rather than illusion (Indian Philosophy II, 1927). S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy II (1927); IEP “Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan”
Evidence: AI draft
Adi Shankara › c. 700–750 · conventionally dated 788–820
Rabindranath Tagore
influenced by
Radhakrishnan’s The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (1918) presented Tagore’s poetry as a modern voice of the spirit of the Upanishads – a humanism and spiritualism he made his own. S. Radhakrishnan, The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (London 1918)
Evidence: AI draft
Rabindranath Tagore › 1861–1941
Swami Vivekananda
influenced by
Radhakrishnan recalled how students passed round Vivekananda’s speeches and letters, stirring pride in Indian culture; he carried on Vivekananda’s presentation of Vedanta as a universal religion. R. N. Minor, Radhakrishnan: A Religious Biography (1987); IEP “Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan”
Evidence: AI draft
Swami Vivekananda › 1863–1902
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Daya Krishna
criticised by
Daya Krishna called it a myth that Indian philosophy is ‘essentially spiritual’ and aimed at liberation – the picture Radhakrishnan’s Indian Philosophy (1923) had made standard. Daya Krishna, ‘Three Myths about Indian Philosophy’, Diogenes 14 (1966); repr. in Indian Philosophy: A Counter Perspective, 1991; S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy I, 1923, introduction
Evidence: AI draft
Daya Krishna › 1924–2007
Criticizes 3
William James
criticised
In the same book Radhakrishnan criticised pragmatism and James’s “pluralistic universe” as products of religious prejudice interfering with philosophy, whose honest course ends in absolute idealism. S. Radhakrishnan, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920), preface and chs. VIII–IX
Evidence: AI draft
William James › 1842–1910
Henri Bergson
criticised
Three chapters of The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920) argue that Bergson’s philosophy, consistently thought through, leads not to pluralism but to absolute idealism. S. Radhakrishnan, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920), chs. V–VII; “Bergson and Absolute Idealism”, Mind 28 (1919)
Evidence: AI draft
Henri Bergson › 1859–1941
Bertrand Russell
criticised
A chapter of The Reign of Religion (1920) examines Russell’s new realism – not, Radhakrishnan conceded, shaped by religious bias – and concludes that it is satisfactory only where it departs from its pluralism and “makes friends with absolutism”. S. Radhakrishnan, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920), ch. XI “The New Realism of Mr. Bertrand Russell”
Evidence: AI draft
Bertrand Russell › 1872–1970
Works
Hibbert Lectures defending religious intuition as a source of knowledge against naturalism and scepticism.
Position
Radhakrishnan interpreted Advaita Vedanta for a modern, international audience. Beyond sense and intellect lies intuition, an integral experience of the whole person, which is the core of all genuine religion; doctrines are only its varying expressions. The world is not illusion but dependent on the Absolute, and the spiritual life must transform society. His Indian Philosophy presented the Indian tradition as a philosophical achievement equal to that of the West, and his comparative works envisaged a meeting of East and West. Critics have found his account of Hinduism apologetic and inclusivist, measuring all religions by Vedanta; a plagiarism charge by the scholar Jadunath Sinha ended in an out-of-court settlement.
Life & context
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in 1888 at Tiruttani in South India and educated at Christian mission schools and Madras Christian College. He taught at Mysore and Calcutta, was Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford from 1936 to 1952, and then served as India’s first Vice-President (1952–62) and second President (1962–67). He died in Madras in 1975; his birthday is celebrated in India as Teachers’ Day.
Further main works
- Indian Philosophy (2 vols., 1923–27)
- The Hindu View of Life (1927)
- Eastern Religions and Western Thought (1939)
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