Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy 01

Here's a comprehensive summary of the provided Jain text on contemporary Vedanta philosophy, focusing on the philosophical contributions of K. C. Bhattacharya and his son, Kalidas Bhattacharya:

The text, "Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy, I" by George Burch, explores the revival of Vedanta philosophy in modern India, particularly highlighting the profound influence of K. C. Bhattacharya and his son, Kalidas Bhattacharya. The author frames Vedanta not as a single theory but as a philosophical school rooted in the Upanishads, characterized by its historical tradition, respect for scripture, and evolving categories of thought. The contemporary revival, influenced by Western thought, is seen as an authentic continuation of this tradition, with academic philosophers writing in English.

K. C. Bhattacharya (1875-1949):

• Significance: Regarded by many Vedantists as the greatest philosopher of modern India, despite his obscurity and the difficulty of his writings. His disciples attest to his thought's subtlety and profound insight.
• Intellectual Style: His written style is precise, literal, and uses ordinary words in unusual ways, lacking rhetorical embellishments. However, his oral teaching was exceptionally clear, and his dialectic irresistible.
• Background and Career: A Bengali Brahmin who faced academic hurdles due to his unwillingness to appease British administrators. He held various teaching and administrative positions before becoming a professor at Calcutta University.
• Philosophical Development (Three Phases):
  • Phase 1: Subjectivist Vedanta:
    • Foundation: Rooted in Vedanta tradition, but approached through a Kantian epistemological lens. Bhattacharya rejected Kant's skepticism about metaphysics, arguing that Kant's epistemology leads to Advaita Vedanta.
    • Methodology: Advocated a phenomenological approach, focusing on critical analysis of normal experience rather than scripture.
    • Key Concepts:
      • Knownness: Explored "knownness" as a property distinct from the object itself, similar to how spatiality can be studied independently.
      • Correction of Error: Analyzed the process of correcting error (e.g., mistaking a rope for a snake) through three stages: presentation, correction, and contemplation of correction. This highlights how the "false" is subjectively negated, and consciousness of the false implies consciousness of the subjective.
      • Faith in Fulfillment: Argued for faith not in scripture, but in the actualization of demands presented by experience. This faith transcends Kant's idea of impotent demands and points towards Vedanta's Brahman.
      • Transcendental Psychology: Developed a system of "grades of subjectivity," outlining eleven stages from the perceived environment to pure subjectivity, where each stage rejects the previous as illusory, leading to the realization of the subject as freedom.
  • Phase 2: Broader Philosophical View:
    • Shift: After retirement and at Amalner, Bhattacharya's philosophy broadened. While still influenced by Vedanta and Kant, it incorporated an "objective attitude" and a "feeling attitude" alongside the subjective.
    • Epistemology: Distinguished four "grades of theoretic consciousness": empirical (concerned with science and fact), pure objective (concerned with self-subsistent objects), spiritual (concerned with reality and subjective enjoyment of the "I"), and transcendental (concerned with truth beyond objective and subjective attitudes).
    • Alternative Forms of the Absolute: His most significant contribution. He posited the Absolute can be conceived as Truth (associated with knowing), Freedom (associated with willing), or Value (associated with feeling). These are seen as alternative conceptualizations of the ultimate reality, with each system of thought (e.g., Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Hegelianism) corresponding to one of these forms.
    • Theory of Feeling: Explored "value" as a felt content, with "Rasa" (flavor) as the felt essence. Artistic enjoyment involves sympathy with sympathy, freeing feeling from individual reference.
    • Concept of the Absolute: The absolute is free from the dualism of content and consciousness. It can be knownness freed from content (truth), consciousness freed from content (freedom), or the implicational relation of content and consciousness (value). These are alternative but inseparable aspects of the Absolute.
  • Phase 3: Logic of Alternation (Kalidas Bhattacharya's Recollections):
    • Core Idea: Generalization of alternatives into a "logic of alternation" or disjunction (this or that), as opposed to Aristotelian (contradiction) or Hegelian (synthesis) logic.
    • Dialectic of Alternation: Involved negations (double, triple, quadruple) to deduce possibilities from actuality. The realm of possibility involves alternation, where different possibilities can be actual for different individuals.
    • Philosophy of Language: Explored the semantic and syntactic functions of language as foundational to expressing these alternatives.
• Influence: His influence is described as "organic, not systematic." He taught a way of philosophizing, inspiring his disciples to develop his ideas in diverse directions rather than simply accepting his doctrines.

Kalidas Bhattacharya (born 1912):

• Continuity and Divergence: Kalidas Bhattacharya views his philosophy as an organic continuation of his father's, sharing the fundamental principle of alternative absolutes but disagreeing on certain correlations.
• Intellectual Style: While his oral style can be obscure, recalling his father's discussions, his written style is generally clear and scholarly.
• Philosophical Focus: A serious, competent, and scholarly philosopher, he is developing an epistemological and metaphysical system based on his father's logic of alternation.
• Key Contributions:
  • Logic of Alternation Applied: Applied the logic of alternation to knowing, feeling, and willing, and to the content of perception and relations.
  • Theory of Knowledge: Focuses on how knowledge is possible, viewing knowledge and object as opposing yet united. He identifies "content" as a third element at higher levels of knowledge (images, universals).
  • Correction of Error and Unreality: Distinguishes between correction of error (where the false appearance is corrected) and perceptual correction (where the illusion disappears). The unreal is what resists confirmation or explodes into nothingness.
  • Transcendental Reflection: Introduces a new method of knowledge involving transcendental reflection, treating categories as entities and culminating in a belief in values, apprehended through cultural tradition in four stages.
  • Advaita Vedanta Metaphysics: Develops an original Advaita Vedanta metaphysics based on the logic of alternation (disjunction).
  • Alternative Absolutes (Detailed Exposition): Elaborates on how knowing, feeling, and willing lead to distinct alternative absolutes:
    • Knowing: Leads to subjective idealism, culminating in Truth (pure subjectivity). The hierarchy includes pure self (jiva), God (Ishvara), and pure consciousness (Brahman).
    • Feeling: Leads to objective realism and the correspondence theory, culminating in Beauty or Value (pure objectivity, surrender to the infinite object).
    • Willing: Leads to dialectic and the concept of the Good, culminating in Freedom (dialectical synthesis, a self-transcending activity creating its object).
  • "Super-Philosophies": These three attitudes (knowing, feeling, willing) represent "super-philosophies" that are equally valid but mutually exclusive. Each demands the subordination, rejection, or incorporation of the others. The alternation between these is the final philosophical pursuit.
  • Status of Alternation: The ultimate problem is whether reality itself is alternating. Bhattacharya suggests that reality might be one, viewed from alternative standpoints (Vedanta's view), or that reality itself is alternating (Jainism's view), or that reality is nothing but the alternating images (Buddhism's view).
  • Commitment to Alternation: Philosophers are not converted to positions by logic but begin with a prior commitment to an alternative (subjective or objective attitude). Philosophical paths diverge rather than converge.

In essence, the text presents a detailed account of the intellectual lineage of contemporary Vedanta through the father-son duo of K. C. and Kalidas Bhattacharya. Their work is characterized by a sophisticated analysis of consciousness, knowledge, and reality, fundamentally underpinned by the novel concept of alternation as a logical and metaphysical principle, offering a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of philosophical truth.