Western Philosophy for Indian Students: Ten Lectures by Tanmoy Bhattacharyya

Western Philosophy: Ten In-Depth Lectures for Indian Graduate and Post-Graduate Students

Western philosophy (Δυτική φιλοσοφία) begins as a remarkable intellectual (πνευματική) pursuit: the shift from mythos (μῦθος — mythic narrative) to logos (λόγος — reasoned account). Unlike the ritual-poetic cosmologies of ancient Near Eastern and Vedic civilizations, early Greek thinkers (Έλληνες στοχαστές) attempted to explain the cosmos not through divine genealogies but through rational principles, natural causes, and conceptual analysis.

For Indian students, this moment is exciting because something comparable happened with the Upaniṣads, the śramaṇa movements, and early Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, though in very different metaphysical and linguistic contexts. Understanding this Greek transition helps us see the broader human shift toward systematic rational inquiry.

These lectures (διαλέξεις) trace Western philosophy from its beginnings in archaic Greece (6th century BCE) through the early classical period, focusing on the Presocratics, Socrates, and the conceptual emergence of philosophy as a disciplined activity. After the completion of our ten lectures, we shall discuss the concept of ‘West’.

by

Tanmoy Bhattacharyya

Howrah District Court

23rd November 2025

Table of Contents (Ten Lectures):

1. The Birth of Western Philosophy: Pre-Socratics and the Problem of the One and the Many (Thales to Parmenides)
2. Plato’s Theory of Forms and the Hierarchy of Being (including rare terms: methexis, chora, noesis/noeta, anamnesis, etc.)
3. Aristotle’s Hylomorphism, Energeia, and the Unmoved Mover (full technical apparatus: hypokeimenon, to ti ên einai, synderesis, prohairesis, etc.)
4. Medieval Synthesis: Augustine, Aquinas, and the Problem of Universals (haecceity, esse/essentia distinction, analogia entis, scotistic formalism)
5. Descartes and the Foundations of Modern Subjectivity (cogito, ideae adventitiae, res cogitans/extensa, mathesis universalis)
6. Kant’s Critical Turn: Phenomena/Noumena, Transcendental Idealism, and the Antinomies
7. German Idealism: Hegel’s Absolute Spirit and the Dialectic (Aufhebung, Geist, Begriff, an sich/für sich)
8. Nietzsche and the Death of God: Will to Power, Eternal Recurrence, Übermensch, Ressentiment
9. 20th-Century Phenomenology and Existentialism: Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre (epoché, noema/noesis, Zuhandenheit/Vorhandenheit, Geworfenheit, mauvaise foi)
10. Analytic Philosophy and the Linguistic Turn: Wittgenstein, Quine, Kripke (private language argument, indeterminacy of translation, rigid designator, causal theory of reference)
11. What is ‘West’ in Western Philosophy: A Large Fiction