Paul. Masson Oursel's view on Comparative Philosophy

Masson Oursel is mainly known as the father of the comparative philosophy. Inspired by two streams, i. e. historicism and positivism, he tried to make philosophies, as the historical phenomena, to have some dialogue with each other within the positivistic tradition. As a result of the successfulness of the comparative method in such field as philology, Oursel believed that if the models of thought in different civilizations are studied comparatively, our knowledge of what we call philosophy would be developed and clarified. His study has been focused on three civilizations: Indian, Chinese and Western; since he regarded their history and theosophical richness as an inseparable part of the perennial philosophy of the universe. By invoking the comparative method, Oursel, in his comparative philosophy, tries to make philosophy relieved from absolute both dogmatism and relativism. In order to do so, he focuses on philosophical facts with regard to their historical contexts. Comparison, for him, is a channel through which philosophy can be relieved from theoretical and metaphysical absolutism and moved towards practice and applicability. The present paper tries to describe Oursel's view on comparative philosophy.