Introduction to Indonesian Philosophy/Preface
- "Indonesian Philosophy is generic designation for tradition of abstract speculation held by the people who inhabit the region now known as Indonesia. Indonesian philosophy is expressed in living languages found in Indonesia (approximately 587 languages) and its national language Bahasa Indonesia, comprising many diverse schools of thought receiving influences of Eastern and Western origins, besides its indigenous, original philosophical theme."
This book introduces some philosophical themes occurring in Indonesian philosophical discussions and discourses. For the last two centuries, the ethnic group philosophies has been studied partially by some Western researchers (especially the Dutch ones). There are Javanese, Buginese, Batak, Minangkabau, or Balinese philosophies to be studied, but there is no effort to integrate them into a certain philosophy named with its regional origin, like what the philosophy historians call 'Western philosophy', 'Indian philosophy', or 'Chinese philosophy'. It has been high time to integrate all the ethnic philosophies into an 'Indonesian philosophy' nowadays. This is what this book engages: it integrates them into a particular philosophy called 'Indonesian philosophy'.
Readers will find it 'amazing' when seeing some elements of Indian, Persian, Arabian, and Western origin in some contents of the Indonesian philosophy, since Indonesian philosophers accept all the influence of the foreign philosophies of the foreign origin without being confused or cultural shock. This is the open-mindedness of Indonesians that make all these live in harmony. Pluralism, besides being the social fact, is the intellectual richness of Indonesia that Indonesians may be proud of.