Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies.

• Author: Gerow, Edwin
• Position: Review

Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and Its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies. Edited by ELI FRANCO and KARIN PREISENDANZ. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, vol. 59. Amsterdam: RODOPI, 1997. Pp. xxxv + 673 + catalogue. $180 (cloth); $52.50 (paper).

This self-consciously imposing volume is of the nature of a huge colloquium: twenty-three papers loosely organized around topics provided by Wilhelm Halbfass' three most recent books, published along with Halbfass' own rejoinders and commentary. A bibliography of Halbfass' works (through 1996, pp. xxv-xxxiii) is provided and--something rather unusual for works of this sort--a comprehensive bibliography of works cited in the individual articles (pp. 599-664). Endnotes, however, are article-specific. The work, planning for which was begun in 1989, appeared just months before Halbfass' unfortunate death at the age of 60, and will thus also serve as a kind of unplanned memorial to this gentle, humane, and very thorough comparativist.

The first two sections, more or less focusing on Indien und Europa (1981; English, 1988), are also the most focused--the obvious "comparative" problem dominates: in the first section it is often contained through buzzwords like "encounter"; in the second, more substantial issues are examined that actually have to do with the civilizations we go on calling "India" and "Europe." Halbfass' remarks on the epistemological pitfalls of "comparison" (pp. 297ff.) are especially pertinent, and often more sophisticated than those found in the various...