Idealism
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Indian Philosophy : Melody and Millstone
Comprehensive review of Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya’s What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy by Dr. G. Ramakrishna. Utilizing Marxist methodology, the text exposes how idealist philosophy served ruling class interests, while defending India’s materialist traditions—Lokāyata, Sāṁkhya, and Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika—which championed rationalism, empirical practice, and scientific inquiry.
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Uddalaka and Yajnavalkya: Materialism & Idealism
Walter Ruben argues that Indian philosophy began with Uddālaka Āruṇi, a hylozoist and primitive materialist in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Comparing Uddālaka’s empirical naturalism on death, sleep, mind, and monism with Yājñavalkya’s religious idealism, Ruben places Indian hylozoism alongside Thales in Greece, establishing a universal historical trajectory for the origin of philosophy.
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Lokāyata Materialism:
Classification of Source MaterialsThis paper analyzes five commentators of the lost Cārvākasūtra—Aviddhakarṇa, Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa, Kambalāśvatara, Purandara, and Bhāvivikta. It contrasts traditional, literal explications with Udbhaṭa’s revisionist interpretations, which introduced Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika categories and near-idealist stances. Despite these divergent developments, all commentators consistently upheld the foundational Cārvāka principle of the primacy of empirical perception.