ABSTRACT
Theoretical issues related to fetishism and idolatry are an explicit focus in Max Müller’s work, and he is able to discern a certain ‘philosophical idolatry’ inherent in the discourse of reason itself. This chapter therefore centres on the extent and limits of his critique of the Enlightenment discourse on fetishism and idolatry, which he engages in uneasy and inconclusive negotiation in the course of his Indological investigations.
