Indian Ethics: Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges: Volume I

442 Pages·2007·3.225 MB·English

by  Bilimoria, Puruṣottama, Prabhu, Joseph, Sharma, Renuka M

INDIAN ETHICS
This is a remarkable achievement both in scope and organization and in the
outstanding quality of some essays. The editors have earned the gratitude of all
Western students of Hindu and Buddhist thought and of comparative ethics. New
possibilities of dialogue have been opened up.
Alasdair MacIntyre.
Indian ethics is one of the great traditions of ethics in world-historical philosophy.
Indian ethical insights have influenced a wide spectrum of thinkers ranging from
the early Greeks and Goethe to Emerson and Thoreau. Yet there have been few
systematic studies of the broad range of Indian ethical reflections in contemporary
philosophical idiom.
This comprehensive compendium explores the scope and limits of Indian ethical
thinking. Thirty distinguished writers engage orthodox and heterodox schools of
thought from the Vedas, Upanishads, the Mahābhārata and Bhagavad-Gītā to
Buddhist, Jaina, and Sāmkhya-Yoga philosophies, and reflect on the interpretation
of their teachings and practices in contemporary contexts and modern secular
sensibilities.
The General Introduction examines the distinctive nature of moral philosophy
in India as compared to the West. Part A analyzes classic texts dealing with such
themes as: Hindu values, virtues and statecraft, the ‘ends’ of living, rites and gifting,
acts and duties, the implications of karma and dharma, caste issues, law, the ethic
of yoga and discipline, and the reality of evil and suffering. Part B focuses on
Buddhist and Jaina ethics through such topics as emotions, action, consequences,
virtue-ethics, renunciation, enlightenment, human rights and ecology. Part C extends
and adapts these traditional moral thinking and praxis to modern and postmodern
worlds, encountering contemporary thinkers such as Gandhi and Aurobindo, and
tests them against present-day issues such as rights, citizenship and democracy,
religious tolerance, environmental and animal ethics, and the challenges posed by
the imperatives of peace and nonviolence, justice and freedom. Finally, Volume II
will pay special attention to post-colonial developments and feminist and applied
ethics – on such questions as the gendered self, gender equity, satī and abortion,
health care and biomedical ethics.
Given the range of topics covered and the eminence of the featured authors, this
volume offers an invaluable resource to a wide variety of readers in the fields of
philosophy, religion, sociology and cultural studies, and to lay seekers and activists
in pursuit of Indian ethical wisdom and South Asian responses to contemporary
moral dilemmas.
This volume has been dedicated to the memories of
the late Bimal K. Matilal, Renuka Sharma, Ninian Smart, Bernard Williams
for inspirations and contributions of each in their own
way to the genesis and completion of this project.
Indian Ethics
Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges
Volume I
Edited by
PUrUSHoTTAMA BIlIMorIA
JoSEPH PrABHU
rEnUkA SHArMA
© Purushottama Bilimoria, Joseph Prabhu and Renuka Sharma 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Purushottama Bilimoria, Joseph Prabhu and Renuka Sharma asserted their moral right under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
First published 2007 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Indian ethics : classical traditions and contemporary challenges: An anthology
1.Ethics - India 2.Hindu ethics 3.Buddhist ethics I.Bilimoria, Purushottama II.Prabhu,
Joseph III.Sharma, Renuka
170.9'54
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Indian ethics : classical traditions and contemporary challenges : An anthology / edited by
Purushottama Bilimoria, Joseph Prabhu, and Renuka Sharma.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7546-3301-2 (hardback)
1. Ethics-India. 2. Social ethics-India. I. Bilimoria, Purushottama. II. Prabhu, Joseph.
III. Sharma, Renuka M.
BJ122.163 2004
70'.954-dc21
2003063853
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN-13: 978-0-754-63301-3 (hbk)
Contents
Preface vii
General Introduction: Thinking Ethics, the West and India 1
Introduction to Part A: Early Indian Ethics – Vedas to the Gītā;
dharma, rites to ‘Right’ 33
1 Dharma, Imperatives, and Tradition: Toward an Indian Theory of
Moral Action 57
J.N. Mohanty
2 Dharma and rationality 79
Bimal Krishna Matilal
3 The Myth of the Ethics of Purusārtha or Humanity’s life-Goals 103
Daya Krishna
4 The Fires of Strangers: A levinasian Approach to Vedic Ethics 117
Laurie L. Patton
5 Sāṃkhya-Yoga Ethics 149
Roy W. Perrett
6 Ethics of liberation in Patañjali’s Yoga 161
Ian Whicher
7 karma’s Suffering: A Mīmāṃsā Solution to the Problem of Evil 171
Purushottama Bilimoria
8 Dāna as a Moral Category 191
Maria Heim
Introduction to Part B: Buddhist and Jaina Approaches to Ethical
Decision Making 211
9 Purgation and Virtue in Jainism: Toward an Ecological Ethic 217
Christopher Key Chapple
vi Indian Ethics
10 Buddhist Ethical Theory 229
Padmasiri de Silva
11 Are there ‘Human rights’ in Buddhism? 247
Damien Keown
12 Buddhism and Democracy 269
Jay L. Garfield
13 Buddhist reductionism and the Structure of Buddhist Ethics 283
Mark Siderits
14 Animal Ethics and Ecology in Classical India – reflections on a Moral
Tradition 297
M.K. Sridhar and Purushottama Bilimoria
Introduction to Part C: Reflections on Moral Ideals and Modernity;
Gandhi and Nonviolence 329
15 Hindu Theory of Tolerance 337
Bhikhu Parekh
16 Action oriented Morality in Hinduism 351
Christopher Key Chapple
17 The Ethical Irrationality of the World: Weber and Hindu Ethics 363
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
18 Social Injustice, retribution and revenge: A normative Analysis of
the Contemporary Social Scene 377
Rajendra Prasad
19 Gandhi, Empire, and a Culture of Peace 395
Joseph Prabhu
20 Ethical Skepticism in the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo 411
Stephen Phillips
Index 421
Preface
Kuryād vidvāṃs tathā ’saktaś cikīrsurlokasaṃgraham
The disinterestedly wise ought to desire for the holding together of all being
(Bhagavadgītā III 25)
our aim in undertaking this compendium is to provide an account of Indian ethical
traditions from early antiquity to the present and to do so in contemporary philosophical
idiom. Scholars of comparative philosophy who resist the temptation of an easy
relativism, acknowledge that there are three great traditions of world philosophy,

those of India, China, and the West. likewise, students of comparative civilizations
have documented the vast influence of the Indian tradition on figures and groups as
diverse as the early Greeks – starting with the orphics and the Pythagoreans – the
German Idealists, and Emerson and Thoreau in the Americas. And yet academic
philosophy, at least in the West, has not registered either the intrinsic importance or
the influence of Indian ethics. From a philosophical standpoint this curious omission
has had baleful effects insofar as it has severely narrowed the scope and range of
ethical discussion. At a time when there is much talk of pluralism, cross-cultural
sensibilities, multiculturalism, and globalization such a gap is doubly unfortunate
because it hinders the conversation between cultures that is much needed in a
complex contemporary environment.
Given this lacuna, it is strange that there have not been more efforts made by
scholars of Indian philosophy to fill this gap. There have indeed been fine and
significant books on Indian metaphysics, epistemology, and logic, but sadly very
few systematic and wide-ranging studies of Indian ethics. These volumes, we hope,
go some way towards meeting this need.
Anyone who has worked within a classical philosophical tradition of such
longevity and complexity knows that it demands a number of skills. one needs
not only linguistic, philological, and historical knowledge, but also philosophical
competence and the ability to interpret ancient wisdom in contemporary contexts.
When we conceived of this project we had three purposes in mind: first, to provide
a faithful account of the great texts and major schools of both the orthodox and
heterodox traditions; second, to relate such an account to present-day concerns
and contexts; and third, to highlight what we felt might be distinctive about the
Indian ethical traditions in terms of both content and style, text and context. We have
expanded more fully on these aims in our general introduction.
viii Indian Ethics
With a project as ambitious as this, it is inevitable that there will still remain
defects of omission and commission. We are aware of some of them and will, of
course, be grateful if others are brought to our attention. Within the limits of our
abilities and time, we have done our best, but to finish such a volume is by no means
to complete it – the work goes on in what Hegel once called ewige Arbeit.
Acknowledgments
What remains now is a very pleasant task. our contributors one and all have been
quite wonderful. Some of them submitted their essays promptly as our first invitation
went out about ten years ago. They have displayed almost saintly patience with, and
understanding of, the inevitable delays involved in such an ambitious enterprise.
others very generously agreed to write essays at short notice, even if it meant
pushing aside some of their own work. Yet others, even if they were not able to
contribute directly, aided us with their sage advice and suggestions, or offered us
their published essays that would not otherwise have come to notice. At the end of
such a large, collaborative undertaking, our overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude
and gladness.
Yet that gladness has also been severely tempered. one of our co-editors sadly
passed away (at barely 45 years of age) while this volume was lumbering to the
finish line. Dr renuka Sharma had been with this project from its inception and
made sure through all the delays and near derailings that it stayed on track. Her own
professional credentials were in medicine and psychiatric psychotherapy. However,
her knowledge of philosophy, the humanities, and feminism was profound, and the
editorial team greatly benefited from her wisdom, sharp mind and compassion. It
was characteristic of her and an indication of how seriously she took this volume
that she worked on her introduction to Part D (now in the second volume) and other
editorial responsibilities till a few days before her death. Her great and generous
spirit hovers over this work and continues to bless it.
The late Professor Bimal k. Matilal is also dearly missed as he is remembered
for the ‘originary’ suggestion, back in oxford, and his role in an initial planning of

the volume (mangalam gurave). And so is Professor ninian Smart, with his gentle
reminders of the kinds of problems we might focus on in the context of ‘World
Philosophy and religion’. We record his unrepentant insistence, over numerous
shared dinners, that utilitarianism when applied properly to animals and their welfare
should, paradoxically, turn all Indians into carnivorous non-vegetarians! The same
principles of utilitarianism (albeit of a rule-based variety), that his brother Jack
(J.J.C.) Smart swears by on another continent, would not, however, persuade Jack to
barrack for India in the cricket match against Australia!
We are very grateful to Professor J.n. Mohanty (of Temple University, PA and
Calcutta) for suggestions on how we might approach such a volume and for his own
contribution, as well as his constant interest in the progress of the project.
Preface ix
William Jackson read an early draft of the manuscript and made very helpful
suggestions towards a more accessible structuring of the essays in the way that
the organization of the volume now stands. Sally Percival Wood’s assistance with
editing and research on gender and certain applied issues, for the chapters that now
appear in Volume II, warrant an acknowledgement.
Particular mention also needs to be made of Sarah lloyd of Ashgate Publishing
for seeing the need for such a work and for her constant encouragement and help,
particularly for seeing the volume through the various stages of production; nitasha
Devasar, senior publisher with oxford University Press, new Delhi, for similar
strong interest in an Indian edition so that this work could also be made available to
scholars and readers in the subcontinent; the editor for Ashgate, Ann newell, for an
equally laborious task.
Closer to home, we (P.B. and on behalf of r.S.) should like also to mention
Professors Max Charlesworth (the Founder-Editor of Sophia with his cross-cultural
sensitivities in the areas of morality and religion), Peter Singer (with whom there
has been long association since the days of Animal liberation and Bioethics in
Melbourne), Patrick Hutchings (a colleague and associate at the two universities
in Melbourne and with Sophia), Shivesh Thakur (with whom studies in philosophy
really started); as well as ramchandra Gandhi, Smt Vishalakshi, naani Indirani,
Gayatri Chakravorthy Spivak, Ashis nandy, and Dr Peter G. Smith, among others –
from whom at least two of us learnt much good analytical, moral and critical thinking.
last but not least, we note Dewi and rasa, whose canine presence intermittently
provided much good company in Venus Bay (a site of the final editing), and indeed
timely ‘extra-human’ ethical reflections.
For my part (J.P.), there are a few other people I want to mention. As already noted,
this volume is largely dedicated to the memory of some of our teachers and friends,
but it is also dedicated to my mother, nellie Peris, in celebration of her ninetieth
birthday. She too has watched over this volume and inquired frequently about it. But
beyond that, she has been for me an exemplar of courage and responsibility. Through
all the vicissitudes of a long and eventful life, she has steadily encouraged my efforts,
and my work on this volume is offered to her in grossly inadequate thanks for her
love and guidance. Still closer to home, I want to thank Betty Bamberg, who has
been my Beatrice, leading me not through the heavens (at least not yet) but through
the challenges of this life; and my daughter Tara, a Doctor of clinical psychology
who will undoubtedly appreciate the psychological wisdom of the Indian traditions.
I want also to thank two great teachers of mine, who alas have passed on:
Bernard Williams, who taught me philosophy in Cambridge, and John Findlay,
who supervised my doctoral work in Boston. They were both remarkable men and
scholars: Williams, brilliantly quick, subtle, and insightful; Findlay, a true sage,
erudite, wise, and gracious. Williams’s writings on ethics are justly renowned.
Findlay was a compleat philosopher, who in addition to a commanding knowledge
of Western philosophy had read widely in the Indian classics. He shared with me
a long poem he had composed to the Buddha as a sixteen-year-old youth in South
Africa. As it turns out, he was a senior colleague at the University of london to