That this process followed by Western thought consists in adopting an optimistic-ethical interpretation of the world will not be clear without further explanation, for it is, indeed, not always openly followed. The optimistic-ethical interpretation is often to be found imbedded in the results of investigations into the nature of knowledge; it often appears beneath a veil of “metaphysics”; it is often so delicately shaded that it produces none of its usual effects. It is only when one has clearly grasped the fact that Western thought has nothing else in mind than to establish for itself a world-view based on world- and life-affirmation and ethical in character, that one can realize [pg ix] how in its theory of knowledge, in its metaphysics, and in all its movements generally in the game of life, it is guided, consciously or unconsciously, by the effort to interpret the world in some way or other and in some measure in the sense of world- and life-affirmation and of ethics. Whether in this attempt it goes to work openly or secretly, skilfully or unskilfully, honourably or craftily, does not matter. Western thought needs this interpretation that it may be able to give a meaning to human life. Its view of life is to be a result of its view of the world. No other course was ever taken into consideration by it. But this awakening of Western thought will not be complete until that thought steps outside itself and comes to an understanding with the search for a world-view as this manifests itself in the thought of mankind as a whole. We have too long been occupied with the developing series of our own philosophical systems, and have taken no notice of the fact that there is a world-philosophy of which our Western philosophy is only a part. If, however, one grasps philosophy as being a struggle to reach a view of the world as a whole, and seeks out the elementary convictions which are to deepen it and give it a sure foundation, one cannot avoid setting our own thought face to face with that of the Hindus and Chinese in the Far East. The latter looks strange to us because much of it has remained even till now naïve and embodied in myth, while in other parts again it has spontaneously advanced to refinements of criticism and to artificialities. But this does not matter. The essential thing is that it is a struggle for a world-view: the form it takes is a secondary matter. Our Western philosophy, if judged by its own latest pronouncements, is much naïver than we admit to ourselves, and we fail to perceive it only because we have acquired the art of expressing what is simple in a learned way. Among the Hindus we encounter the world-view which is based on world- and life-negation, and the way in which it grounds itself in thought is calculated to leave us not knowing what to make of our prejudice in favour of world- [pg x] and life-affirmation, which, as Westerners, we are inclined to assume as something more or less self-evident.