Hegel's argument-and it is still the argument of those who entertain the old reluctance to confer the title "philosopher" upon the immortal thinkers of India and China-is that something is missing from the Oriental systems. When they are compared with Western philosophy, as developed in antiquity and in modern times, what is obviously lacking is the ever-renewed, fructifying close contact with the progressive natural sciences-their improving critical methods and their increasingly secular, nontheological, practically anti-religious, outlook on man and the world. This is enough, we are asked to agree, to justify the Western restriction of the classic term. (Heinrich Robert Zimmer)

Hegel's argument-and it is still the argument of those who entertain the old reluctance to confer the title "philosopher" upon the immortal thinkers of India and China-is that something is missing from the Oriental systems. When they are compared with Western philosophy, as developed in antiquity and in modern times, what is obviously lacking is the ever-renewed, fructifying close contact with the progressive natural sciences-their improving critical methods and their increasingly secular, nontheological, practically anti-religious, outlook on man and the world. This is enough, we are asked to agree, to justify the Western restriction of the classic term.

Heinrich Robert Zimmer

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antiquity argument classic close contact critical enough entertain immortal india lacking man missing modern natural oriental outlook philosopher philosophy progressive reluctance restriction secular something term times title western world

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