Table of Contents

Preface R. Baine Harris A Word of Thanks Paulos Mar Gregorios Does Geography Condition Philosophy? On Going Beyond the Occidental-Oriental Distinction Paulos Mar Gregorios Plato, Neoplatonism and Their Parallel Indian Ideas D. P. Chattopadhyaya The Omnipresence of Being, The Intellect-Intelligible Identity and the Undescending Part of the Soul Atsushi Sumi The Oriental Influences Upon Plotinus' Thought: An Assessment of the Controversy Between Brehier and Rist on the Soul's Relation to the One Roman T. Ciapalo Plotinus and Interior Space Frederic M. Schroeder Unity and Multiplicity: Reflections on Emanationism as a Philosophical Theme in the Context of Neoplatonism P.K. Mukhopadhyaya Being and Knowing in Plotinus Lloyd P. Gerson Platonism in Late Classical Antiquity and Some Indian Parallels Henry J. Blumenthal The Sadhana of Plotinus and Sri Aurobindo Arabinda Basu Plotinus' Neoplatonism and the Thought of Sri Aurobindo John R. A. Mayer The Theoria of Nature in Plotinus and the Yoga of the Earth Consciousness in Aurobindo Daniel Kealey The Four Dimensional Philosophy of Indian Thought and Plotinus I. C. Sharma Plotinus' Criticism of Materialism Christos Evangeliou Plotinus and Vedanta S. R. Bhatt Plotinus and Sankara: Some Significant Affinities and Divergences G. C. Nayak Man's Predicament--The Unique Indian Experience and the Neoplatonic Tradition Gopal Chandra Khan Rationality and Ritual in Neoplatonism Robert M. Berchman Participants Contributors

About the Author

Paulos Mar Gregorios (1922-1996) was Mar Thoma (Syrian) Orthodox Bishop of New Delhi and North India and taught at the Orthodox Theological College in New Delhi.

Reviews

The essays in this book show the actual similarities in themes or philosophical systems that exist between certain Western Neoplatonic writers and some major Hindu philosophers and deals with the arguments, pro and con, of the case for an Indian source for the thought of Plotinus. Some of the essays are critical studies involving the comparison of technical terms and linguistic considerations, whereas others are only general comparisons. An exercise in comparative philosophy, this book constitutes a de facto East-West philosophical dialogue. It concludes with an extensive critical essay on the role of ritual, myth, and magic in Neoplatonism, an ancillary topic relevant to a comparison of Eastern and Western religious thought.