1 Identifying ‘Philosophy’ in Indian tradition -Pradeep Gokhale Ex-Professor of Philosophy, S. P. Pune University, Pune (India) PROLOGUE 1 The journey of ‘Indian philosophy’ in the contemporary academic world has not been smooth and easy. Some basic questions have been raised about the status of Indian philosophy as philosophy. Many a time the so-called Indian philosophy is treated as ‘Religious studies’ in western universities and some Indian scholars of Indian philosophy too take pride in regarding Indian philosophy as essentially religious or spiritual. On the other hand there were some Indian scholars trained in analytical philosophy who highlighted critical, argumentative and analytical aspects of Indian philosophy and claimed that Indian philosophy is philosophy in the same sense in which western philosophy is philosophy. In this paper I will address myself to the question of identifying philosophy in Indian intellectual tradition with special reference to the views presented by W. Halbfass in his book India and Europe. Halbfass takes up the issue in the chapter entitled “Darśana, Ānvīkṣikī, Philosophy”. I will begin the discussion by taking note of some of the points Halbfass has made in the chapter. (1) Halbfass accepts without hesitation that ‘there was philosophy in India in a sense which is fully compatible with what European philosophers have actually been doing and with what is documented in European philosophical literature”. (Halbfass, 286) (2) Halbfass refers to Jacobi’s claim that Kauṭilya’s ānvīkṣikī can be identified with ‘philosophy’ in its western sense and Hacker’s vehement criticism of it. Halbfass describes Hacker’s statements as intriguing as well as problematic (Ibid, 285) but does not take a clear stand on Hacker’s view on the conceptual link between ānvīkṣikī and ‘Philosophy’. 1 This is a revised version of the article presented in the International Seminar on “Philosophy in Colonial India” organized by the Department of Philosophy, University of Pune (India) under its UGC Departmental Special Assistance Programme on 21 st - 23 rd January 2009 and subsequently published in A. D. Sharma, Jata Shankar and R. C. Sinha (Eds.), Dimensions of Philosophy, New Bharati Book Corporation, New Delhi, 2012 (Pages 151-160)