Introduction

German philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reacted with much interest and even enthusiasm to the growth of knowledge about Indian intellectual history at that time. Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schlegel praised India as the cradle of human culture, and Indian thinkers were dealt with in contemporary histories of philosophy. Philosopher and philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt participated in this intellectual development. He was proficient in Sanskrit, knowledgeable about Indian culture, and keen to share his knowledge with his contemporaries. His publication of two commendatory articles about the Bhagavadgita can be seen as the apex of the positive reception of Indian philosophy in Germany.

The positive attitude towards Indian thought changed at some point in history. It seems to be the influence of G. W. F. Hegel, in particular, that led to a negative evaluation or, more often, to a disinterest in Indian literature and thought that is typical for German philosophers since the second half of the nineteenth century. Hegel expressed his position concisely in his critical review of Humboldt's two positive articles about the Gita. Basically, he denies that the Gita – or any other ancient Indian text – deserves to be included in the scope of philosophy. The dispute between Humboldt and Hegel was a crucial turning point for the evaluation of Indian thought in Germany and, thereby, for the future development of philosophy as a discipline. It is thus no exaggeration when Aakash Singh Rathore and Rimina Mohapatra state that ‘the reception of the Gita was critical to philosophical developments taking place in Germany’.

In the globalized world of the twenty-first century, the question of whether there are philosophical texts and debates that are not ‘footnotes to Plato’ – as Alfred North Whitehead poignantly defined Western philosophy – is of eminent concern. Although the question still does not receive the attention it deserves, there is nowadays an ongoing debate about non-Western philosophy. The controversy between Humboldt and Hegel is an important contribution to this debate for two reasons. First, it is a very early dispute that defined the contours of later discussions. Second, in contrast to many contemporary debates about non-Western thought, Humboldt and Hegel argue explicitly and elaborately about the question of whether such thought should be understood as philosophy.