Monday, February 14, 2005

We've got plenty of messiahs already, thank you

Mockrauer's defence of Deussen:
Especially in the polemics against Deussen's preference of the Vedanta over other philosophical and religious systems, against his in this respect consistent interpretation of the Upanishads [...], a criticism is expressed, which is truly an attack on Schopenhauer and his way of approaching Indian thinking. Indeed it is in this very matter that Deussen shows himself to be the loyal disciple of Schopenhauer, whose stimulation provided the guiding light for Deussen's Indian studies.
Mockrauer, Schopenhauer Yearbook 1927, 16
Yet Heimann was unimpressed:
Deussen in his later synthesis, forces foreign and disfiguring Western philosophical ideas onto Indian thinking and he also assigns universal validity to specifically Indian traits. [...] Deussen's work must be criticised philosophically, not because his exceedingly clearly expounded insights are transmitted to the layman in an almost primitive manner, but because he subordinates - in the fashion of a religious messia - the results of his serious research to his universal idea of truth. In doing so he concocts an extract out of very heterogeneous elements.
Heimann, Schopenhauer Yearbook 1931, 252

original release comparativist, 2005

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