Paul Masson-Oursel

Paul Masson-Oursel (5 September 1882 18 March 1956) was a French orientalist and philosopher, a pioneer of 'comparative philosophy'.

Masson-Oursel was a student of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Henri Bergson, Emile Durkheim, Pierre Janet, André Lalande, Marcel Mauss. With Sylvain Lévy, Alfred Foucher, Chavannes, Clement Huart, he learned Sankrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Arab. La Philosophie Comparée, his Sorbonne doctoral dissertation, attempted to apply Comtean positivism and a comparative method which identified 'analogies' between the philosophies of Europe, India and China.[1] Masson-Oursel argued that "philosophy cannot achieve positivity so long as its investigations are restricted to the thought of our own civilization", since "no one philosophy has the right to put itself forward as co-extensive with the human mind".[2]

Masson-Oursel died in Paris.

English and German Publications

References

  1. Joseph Kaipayil, The Epistemology of Comparative Philosophy: A Critique with Reference to P.T. Raju's Views, 1995, p.8-9
  2. Comparative Philosophy, pp. 33, 35. Quoted in John James Clarke, Oriental enlightenment: the encounter between Asian and Western thought, Routledge, 1997, pp.121-2

Translated texts

India and colonization [Inde et colonisation]. Harmonie, 13ème année, n° 4. Octobre-décembre 1949. pp. 80–82 Translated by Rupali Bhave: http://masson-oursel.fcsh.unl.pt/?p=26330 The two Indias and their mutual tolerance [Les deux Indes et leur tolérance mutuelle]. Harmonie, 13ème année, n° 3. Juillet-septembre 1949. pp. 61–63 Translated by Asha Ogale : http://masson-oursel.fcsh.unl.pt/?p=26320

External links