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I am not sure that classification of philosophies and philosophers is of any use. What's more important is the principles formulated and less wrong generalizati

I am not sure that classification of philosophies and philosophers is of any use. What's more important is the principles formulated and less wrong generalizations about certain aspects of reality being made. It should be called Ideas, but idealism (the notion that there is nothing exist but Ideas) is as wrong as a disconnected from reality metaphysics. So, the seers of Upanishads and non-lamaist sects of Buddhism (Hinayana), being seekers after truth with emphasis on seeing things as they are have described most significant principles of philosophy of the mind and moral philosophy something about 6 century BC, if we consider philosophy of the Buddha as culmination of that epoch. There is the famous two volume work by Radhakrishnan which gives obviously a Hindu centered overview of the philosophy of Indian civilization. All the fundamental ideas are there, including the notion that all phenomena are devoid of any absolute essence, are mere appearances to the senses of different aspects of what they call the whole - Brahman. Some later Buddhist sects have rejected the notion of Brahman and maintain that the real nature of all phenomena is void. To put it simple - Hindus got the fundamental principles right few thousand years before West.

ppod 10y ago
I don't think "getting it right" is a good way of phrasing it. The aspects of Eastern philosophy you mention seem more relevant to Western ideas like phenomenology, monism or pantheism. The identifying feature of existentialism, as distinct from phenomenology, is the focus on the inescapable responsibility that our individual freedom places on us to create our own meaning in life and accept our own ethical behaviour and value system. It is an individualistic and atheistic perspective. The phenomenological aspects are more psychological than the Eastern works you mention, which are more metaphysical. You say "I am not sure that classification of philosophies and philosophers is of any use", but you raised the issue of the classification and its origin.

ppod 10y ago

I don't think "getting it right" is a good way of phrasing it. The aspects of Eastern philosophy you mention seem more relevant to Western ideas like phenomenology, monism or pantheism. The identifying feature of existentialism, as distinct from phenomenology, is the focus on the inescapable responsibility that our individual freedom places on us to create our own meaning in life and accept our own ethical behaviour and value system. It is an individualistic and atheistic perspective. The phenomenological aspects are more psychological than the Eastern works you mention, which are more metaphysical. You say "I am not sure that classification of philosophies and philosophers is of any use", but you raised the issue of the classification and its origin.