Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t12.3

v1.c7.s9.t12.3

In dealing with the heritage of Indian philosophy, Chattopadhyaya also put forward his own viewpoints. In *What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy* he pointed out that philosophical thoughts were ultimately for promoting social progress and development of rationality and science. Inside the heritage of ancient Indian philosophy, the ideas and concepts as long as they could promote today's social progress and development of rationalism and science, were alive and valuable. On the contrary, all the ideas and concepts that would hinder social progress and development of rationalism and science were dead, worthless. Indian ancient philosophy is a huge treasure house with a variety of ideas, these ideas are entangled in a complex, even opposite-to-each-other relationship. They had played different roles in the development of history, thus also had a different meaning in today's social development. In traditional Indian philosophy, there were a lot of ideas and thoughts of obscurantism, mysticism and anti-science, but there were also many ideas and thoughts against these decadent ideas which were helpful for social progress and development of rationalism and science, showing people's pursuit of freedom and equality. Therefore, he appealed to today's Indian philosophical workers they should carry out critical distinction on a variety of traditional philosophical concepts and ideas, must abandon dead concepts and ideas of past philosophy, and vigorously dig and promote those ideas and concepts promoting today's social progress and development of science and democracy.