Diversifying Indic Philosophical Thinking Whose Thinking, How, and in Which Spaces?

Abstract

In this symposium, Sthaneshwar Timalsina proposes that the category of ‘Indic philosophy/philosophies” be used systematically for the emerging and forward-looking philosophical system that combines historical and cultural insights from the Indian subcontinent to respond to the philosophical challenges that face the world today. This category should, in his view, be distinguished from ‘Indian philosophy,’ an external perspective that presents philosophical activity on the subcontinent in a second language. In engaging his proposal Ana Laura Funes Maderey troubles his distinction of the ‘gaze from within’ and the ‘gaze from without’ from the perspective of, what in Latinx philosophy are termed, ‘border intellectuals’; Sonam Kachru invites Timalsina to elucidate how his thick philosophizing (or philosophizing in the wild) can be conducted today when global philosophy demands intellectual servitude of those who seek to be involved in academic philosophical discussions; Anil Mundra questions whether Indic philosophies can be liberated from colonial frameworks in English and through one single cultural framework, while Sarju Patel takes forward Timalsina’s proposal to suggest a bidirectional approach that will enable professional philosophers to rethink the telos of philosophical thinking, by, for example, engaging thoroughly with Indic philosophical thinking. Timalsina responds by drawing attention to our specific situatedness in this world and at this point in time that enables us to transcend our cultural particularities and singularities.