ABSTRACT
Our heritage, that of the Arabs and Muslims, is articulated around two axes: that of religion, historically situated in the western Semitic monotheistic tradition, and that of Greek philosophy from Plato to Aristotle and Plotinus. Nowadays our references are classical and modern philosophy, from Descartes to Heidegger and Sartre, passing through Leibniz and Hegel, Nietzsche and Husserl. Although this philosophy was inspired by the methodology of Greek philosophy, it broke with it and went beyond. In the past as much as at the present time, we have neglected Indian religious thought and Chinese wisdom, each of them based on principles that are very different from the Greek and Semitic traditions. Their basis is personal effort that is particularized but apt to acquire a universal dimension since they address every man. Western thinkers, for their part, have taken a great interest in this tradition with its exceptional profundity. Contemporary Indian, Chinese, and Japanese thinkers have also devoted themselves to studying it. Concepts such as Yin, Yang, and the Tao have even entered everyday language in the West, and the Hindu and Buddhist religious movements have attracted a great number of followers.
