Hegel's India

In his writings on India, Hegel characterized Indian thought as “fantastic,” “subjective,” “wild,” “dreamy,” “frenzied,” “absurd,” and “repetitive.” If Indian art, religion, and philosophy were so inadequate, what explains his lifelong fascination with India? This unique volume brings together Hegel’s reflections and argues that Indian thought haunted him, representing a nemesis to his own philosophy. Further, it indicates that the longstanding critical appraisals of Hegel are incommensurate with his detailed explorations of Indian thought.

Hegel distinguished his own thought on two grounds. The first was to focus on freedom and to rail perpetually against the caste system. The second was to indicate the necessity for dialectical mediation, and thus to reprove the stasis of Indian thought. But did Hegel ever manage to exorcise the evil twin that beset his work?

Shedding new light on Indological and Hegelian studies, this book systematically presents all of Hegel’s writings on and about India for the first time, including translations of his lesser-known essays on the Bhagavad-Gita and the Oriental Spirit, along with a substantive reinterpretation and a bibliography.

‘Hegel’s India takes the challenge of a detailed reading of Hegel’s texts with a surprising result: behind Hegel’s dismissal of India, there lies not only his profound fascination with India but also an uncanny proximity between India’s ancient wisdom and Hegel’s speculative thought.’

— Slavoj Žižek, International Director, the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, United Kingdom

Hegel's India
A Reinterpretation, with Texts

Contents

Preface to This Edition
Acknowledgments

Reinterpretation
1. India in Hegel’s System: The Ladder to the Circle
2. Hegel’s Indological Sources and the Standard
Interpretation
3. Hegel’s India Writings: The Gita and World History
4. Hegel’s India Writings: Art, Religion, and Philosophy
5. Fragments: Oriental Spirit, Logic, and Right
6. Conclusion
References

Texts
1. On the Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm von Humboldt
2. Philosophy of World History
3. Lectures on the Philosophy of Fine Art
4. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
5. The Philosophy of Mind (Encyclopedia, Part III)
6. Lectures on the History of Philosophy
7. Fragments: Oriental Spirit, Logic, and Right

Plates
Bibliography
Index