Ebook: Neoplatonism and Indian Thought

Papers presented at an international conference held at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in October, 1976; sponsored jointly by Brock University and the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies.

The nineteen essays that form this pioneering volume of comparative philosophy represent an exchange of ideas among specialists in Neoplatonism and specialists in Indian thought. These scholars have examined concepts and assertions that appear to be common to both philosophical traditions, as well as the possible historical influence of Indian sources upon late Greek philosophy, and specifically upon the Alexandrine Platonists. While most of the essays refer to Hinduism, several of them contain general surveys.

All of the papers in this volume were presented or prepared for presentation at an international conference on “Neoplatonism and Indian Thought” held at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in October, 1976. The conference was sponsored jointly by the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies and Brock University, and was largely the product of the efforts of Professor John R. A. Mayer of Brock University, who arranged primary funding through the Canada Council, served as co-chairman of the planning committee, and handled all local arrangements. President Alan Earp of Brock University also gave the project his full moral and financial support. Some one hundred scholars, representing eight nations, participated in the sessions and the conference was judged to be a success by its planners, sponsors, and participants. It stimulated interest in the study of Neoplatonism, a major objective of I. S. N. S., and it continued the long-standing involvement in comparative studies of Brock's philosophy department.

The conference itself, being the first ever held in any country on the subject, was a pioneering venture. Relatively few books and articles comparing the two intellectual traditions have been written. Although a few first rate specialized studies, such as Émile Bréhier’s chapter on “L’orientalisme de Plotin” in his “La philosophie de Plotin” (Paris, 1928) and J. F. Staal’s “Advaita and Neoplatonism” (Madras, 1961) are available, no major work dealing with the conference theme in a comprehensive way has yet been produced. Faced with the fact of the scarcity of scholars who are experts in both Neoplatonism and Indian thought, the planning committee decided to have a conference that would allow for an interchange of ideas between specialists in Neoplatonism and specialists in Indian thought. The end result was that most of the papers accepted for the conference were written by experts in the one who were willing to explore some aspect of its connection with the other, and mainly by Western philosophers and classicists willing to investigate Indian thought and Indian philosophers and Western Indologists willing to investigate Neoplatonism. Discussions after the papers were exceptionally lively, and most participants agreed that the sessions were a Challenging and creative experience.