Indonesian philosophy is a generic designation for the tradition of abstract speculation held by the people who inhabit the region now known as Indonesia.
Sunoto established the nation's first philosophy department at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in August, 1967.
He pointed to core Indonesian concepts and practices such as mupakat, pantun-pantun, Pancasila, hukum adat, gotong-royong, and kekeluargaan.
[1] Sumardjo wrote that Indonesian philosophy are "primordial thoughts" or "basic mindsets that structurise the whole culture of an ethnic group".
The Indonesian language initially had no word for philosophy as an entity separated from theology, art, and science.
Instead, as argued by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Indonesians have a generic word budaya or kebudayaan, which describes the totality of the manifestations of the life of a society.
Philosophy, science, theology, religion, art and technology are at once manifestations of a society's life, which are included in the meaning of the word budaya.
Most of the school’s proponents assume that today’s Indonesian people are in the position of being blind to their original values.
It ordains the ceremonies of marriage, birth and death, the times and the methods for sowing rice, building a house, praying for rain, and many other things.
Its roots lay in the obscurity of the past, when the ancestors laid down the adat once and for all, or as Minangkabau people say: It doesn't crack with the heat or rot in the rain.
The myths are sung (and only recently written) in important ceremonies held on special occasions of birth, death, marriage, harvest festival, and so on.
He was married to a woman, who was his own daughter, and had many children, some of whom later became seniangs—group of spirits who live in the heavens, responsible for the policing of the most important moral affairs and they are in charge of adat guardians.
These sayings are part of the adat in the sense that they give guidance and instruction to every member of a particular ethnic group to treat others well in the community.
As the myth of origin told, humans were parts of nature; they were made of it, so they had to live in total submission to its laws.
The social structure bound by a common adat was typified by small-scale communities of people in villages or of nomads wandering over a specific area.
Their headmen were elected from the descendants of the oldest branch of the tribe, and they saw to the needs and interests of the community, assisted by a council of elders.
Naturally in a democracy of this type, in which a premium is put on unanimity of opinions, the position of the balai was extremely important.
it included the regulation of marriage ceremonies, crop cultivation, distribution of the harvest, division of legacies, etc., quite apart from attending to the daily needs of the community.
Sun Yat-senism, Maoism, and Neo-maoism are important philosophies that were widespread all over Indonesia in the early 20th century, together with the great growth of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
These books cover the Chinese contribution to the Indonesian politico-philosophical tradition: The diffusion of philosophies continued with the coming of Hindu Brahmans and Buddhists of Indian origin in 322 BC-700 AD.
Sufis from the Al-Ghazali line include Nuruddin Al-Raniri, Abdurrauf Al-Singkeli, Abd al-Shamad Al-Palimbangi, Syekh Yusuf Makassar, while the Ibn Arabi line includes Hamzah Al-Fansuri, Al-Sumatrani, Syekh Siti Jenar, and so on.
[24] Arabian Wahhabism was also adopted by King Pakubuwono IV and Tuanku Imam Bonjol, who eradicated Sufism and encouraged Qur'an teachings instead.
[26] When the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia implemented ‘The Ethical Politics’ (Politik Etis) in the early 20th century, Dutch-style educational institutions mushroomed and were opened for native children of noble, feudal classes who wanted to work in colonial institutions.
Indonesia's republican government, its constitution and distribution of power, its political parties and its long-term national economic planning were carried out on a Western model.
Even its ideology of Pancasila (unlike what Sukarno always boasted or what Suharto later established) was inspired by Western ideals of humanism, social-democracy, and the national socialism of the Nazi party, as clearly shown in the oration of BPUPK members, a preparatory council of Indonesian independence in August 1945.
Francis Xavier, the first Spanish Catholic preacher to go to Indonesia, translated Credo, Confession Generalis, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Salve Regina, and The Ten Commandments into Malay between 1546 and 1547, through which Catholicism was propagated among the native people.
[36] From those universities graduated many who later mastered Christian philosophy, such as Nico Syukur Dister, J.B. Banawiratma, Robert J. Hardawiryana, JB.. Mangunwijaya, T.H.
In its stead, Soeharto elevated pancasila as an official state ideology, one selectively tailored to meet the needs of the New Order.