Hegel’s Indological Sources and the Standard Interpretation
Hegel’s Indological Sources and the Standard Interpretation
Hegel’s writings illustrate the spread of Indological studies in Germany and elsewhere, especially the influence of Bhagavad-Gita and reliance on translations of Colebrooke, Wilkins and Schlegel. His views on non-Western societies have been largely condemned as being negative, critical and fraught with cultural prejudice. The widely accepted standard interpretation is the proxy-war hypothesis that Hegel’s targets of attack were the German Romantics. So he may have used the means of India and the occasion of publications such as Humboldt’s to discrediting the Romantics and diffusing their influence. This chapter overviews this fascinating history and argues that this may be true but insufficient to explain the consistency, depth and breadth of his interest across decades, as reflected in his close and constructive study of Indian thought.
Keywords: Indological studies in Germany, sources and translations, Bhagavad-Gita, Indian art, religion, and philosophy, Encyclopedia, Part III, standard interpretation, proxy-war hypothesis, German Romantics
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