Introduction: Swami Vivekananda as an Immersive Cosmopolitan
Philosopher
PART ONE: Integral Advaita
Chapter 1
The Making of an Integral Advaitin: Vivekananda's Intellectual and
Spiritual Tutelage under Sri Ramakrishna
Chapter 2
"The Deification of the World": The Metaphysics and Ethics of
Oneness in Vivekananda's Integral Advaita
Chapter 3
Grounding Religious Cosmopolitanism: Three Phases in the Evolution
of Vivekananda's Doctrine of the Harmony of Religions
PART TWO: The Experiential Basis of Religion
Chapter 4
"The Science of Religion": Vivekananda's Critique of Scientism and
His Defense of the Scientific Credentials of Religion
Chapter 5
Perceiving God: A Vivekanandan Argument for the Epistemic Value of
Supersensuous Perception
Chapter 6
Addressing Philosophical Challenges to Supersensuous Perception
PART THREE: Faith and Reason
Chapter 7
From Agnosticism to
Swami Medhananda (Ayon Maharaj) is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order
and Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Ramakrishna
Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education in Mysore, India. He is
the author of Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna
and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press,
2018) and The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency: Revaluating German
Aesthetics from Kant to
Adorno (Bloomsbury, 2013). He is also the editor of The Bloomsbury
Research Handbook of Vedanta (2020). He received his PhD from the
University of California at Berkeley and studied at Oxford
University and Humboldt University in Berlin.
I conclude that Medhananda has done an excellent job presenting the
thought of Vivekananda and locating it in the debates of both his
Indian and British contemporaries.
*Peter Forrest, International Journal for Philosophy of
Religion*
Swami Medhananda's most recent book promises to revolutionize the
study of the thought of Swami Vivekananda. In this volume,
Medhananda, among other things, argues that Swami Vivekananda, like
his revered guru, Sri Ramakrishna, was a highly original thinker
who did not simply restate Advaita Vedānta, but put forth a
radically new model of religious pluralism whose implications are
not yet fully grasped or appreciated by philosophers of religion
today... Swami Medhananda's is the first which has been attentive
to the chronology of Swami Vivekananda's writings and lectures.
When these materials are viewed chronologically, one can see an
unfolding of Swami Vivekananda's thought in a way that is not
otherwise possible.
*Jeffery D. Long, Samvit*
In his lucid and accessible book, Swami Medhananda expounds
Vivekananda's philosophy, locating it in both the Indian and
Western intellectual debates, and establishing his originality and
enduring relevance....Medhananda is a meticulous scholar, engaging
not merely with those in the canon, such as Kant and John Stuart
Mill, but many other philosophers, such as William Hamilton and
Herbert Spencer, who are not as widely read as they should
be....Medhananda exhibits Vivekananda as an original epistemologist
anticipating later trends....In the last section...Medhananda makes
a good case that contemporary epistemologists of religion should
take note of Vivekananda's contributions....Medhananda has done an
excellent job presenting the thought of Vivekananda and locating it
in the debates of both his Indian and British contemporaries. Even
when his philosophy is open to objection it is original and
thought-provoking.
*Peter Forrest, University of New England, Australia*
Medhananda also demonstrates that Vivekananda makes vital
contributions to current philosophical debates...He offers an
original solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
*J. M. Fritzman, CHOICE*
Swami Medhananda's Swami Vivekananda's Vedantic Cosmopolitanism
(Oxford University Press) is an extraordinary achievement. A
brilliant, deep and searching exploration of Swami Vivekananda,
this may be the best book in English on philosophical debates in
modern Hinduism, and philosophy of religion more generally.
*Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Princeton University*
This is the first, and by far the best, analytical study of the
original philosophy of Swami Vivekananda—who was not just a
preacher, mystic, and orator, but a critical Kantian Vedāntist.
Meticulously engaging with cutting-edge twenty-first century
epistemological debates on testimony of spiritual experiences and
with late nineteenth-century metaphysical debates about the
relation between God and the world, this work establishes
Vivekananda as a major modern systematic philosopher and perhaps
the first 'fusion philosopher' of the world. Combining profound
textual scholarship with lucid, argument-rich writing, it should
become a must-read textbook of world philosophy.
*Arindam Chakrabarti, Stony Brook University*
In Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism, Medhananda
brilliantly spearheads a fresh appreciation of Vivekananda, a key
member in a group of extremely insightful and innovative Indian
philosophers active in the eve of Independence. Medhananda
challenges the simplistic classification of these thinkers as
'Neo-Hindu' or 'Neo-Vedāntic,' demonstrating instead how
Vivekananda is a pioneering voice in cosmopolitan philosophy, a
creative intellectual who develops new philosophical theories
inspired by both Indian and European materials.
*Jonardon Ganeri, University of Toronto*
Swami Vivekananda was not only an enormously influential religious
leader; he was one of the pre-eminent Vedānta philosophers of the
Indian renaissance. He offered a vision of Vedānta continuous with
its classical history and in dialogue with modernity, and in doing
so demonstrated how Indian philosophy could be pursued in a
cosmopolitan voice. Swami Medhananda presents us with the first
detailed exploration of Vivekananda's entire philosophical program,
setting it both in the context of classical Indian philosophy, and
in the context of Indian renaissance thought. He shows that
Vivekananda has a great deal to contribute to contemporary debates
in the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. This book is
erudite, clear, and compelling. It is essential reading for anyone
who cares about global philosophy or religion.
*Jay Garfield, University of Melbourne*
Medhananda's work is one of the very few that locates Vivekananda
in the context of important intellectual trends of his time and
examines his engagement with thinkers that include Immanuel Kant,
Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and
others...This is a welcome contribution to Vivekananda studies and
Medhananda, immersed in both traditional and Western learning, is
aptly qualified for such work...they certainly contribute to our
better understanding of his Vedāntic commitments in a global
intellectual context.
*Anantanand Rambachan, Philosophy East & West*
The book is well-written and valuable to the contemporary
understanding of Vivekananda's philosophy. It traverses vast
scholarly literature from diverse philosophical schools, both
classical Indian and modern western.
*A. Raghuramaraju, Journal of World Philosophies*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |