Dear friends,
>
> A collegue of mine at office has a son, Aniruddh,
> studying at
> Berkeley University, USA. Aniruddh last week sent
> his father via e-
> mail a question about Ethics in Greek and Indian
> philosophy. His
> father asked me to help him send Aniruddh a proper
> answer. I did
> manage to draft a response which has since been sent
> to Berkeley.
>
> Since the subject is of interest to everyone I
> thought it would be
> appropriate to share it on T'venkatam List also. I
> wonder what
> members would comment.
>
> The question was as follows:
>
> QUOTE
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <mailto:anirudhv@xxxx>Anirudh
> Vemprala
> To: <mailto:kanna@xxxx>Kanna Vemprala
> Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 10:51 AM
> Subject: Re: Re:
>
> i remember that many-a-time you quote telugu quotes
> which involve
> characters of the great epics (or sometimes things
> from nature -
> involving animals or something) - remember?
> u told me that your dad used to say
> somethingsomethinsomething in
> telugu and then u'd translate it for me and then
> tell me what it
> meant. i was just wondering: what role did that play
> (quotes
> pertaining/related or from the epics) in describing
> things like
> ethics and moral principles, in your childhood?
>
> my prof says that the hindu philosophy doens't have
> a "system of
> ethics" like the greeks did. i felt this was wrong,
> but i didn't
> challenge him cuz i dont know much of Platonic
> system of ethics & the
> related.
> i told him that i didn't agree since a lot of the
> stuff in the gita
> has "ethical" discussions like when arjuna didn't
> want to kill his
> own brothers, krishna has to convince him that it
> was alright. but he
> said that differed greatly from the greek idea. but
> hmm.. he might
> have had a point since he said "system of ethics".
> but i duno..
>
> any comments?
>
> @ni-cat
>
> <<<<UNQUOTE
>
> Now my answer to the above was as follows and as it
> was transmitted
> by my office colleague to his son in Berkeley:
>
> QUOTE
>
> Dear Kanna,
>
> Another good question your son has posed to you and
> I'm not surprised
> he's got you stumped! I think you should temporarily
> throw all office
> work aside and instead take a crash-course on Indian
> religion,
> philosophy and history! Otherwise I think Aniruddh
> is going to shame
> you more and more as the days go along!!
>
> I don't know what exactly Aniruddh's teacher is
> telling him about
> Greek "system of ethics" but I suspect it is to do
> with the Platonic
> insistence that Ethics and Morals can be a subject
> of inquiry quite
> independent of the subject of religion. The ancient
> Greeks believed
> that human ethics/morality can be derived without
> reference to any
> religious/philosophical/theological underpinning.
> According to Plato,
> a "system of ethics" can be founded purely on
> Rationality. It was
> believed that Man's Reason or Reasonability alone
> can teach him what
> is good conduct, fair behaviour and how to create
> the ideal society.
> The argument was -- you do not need Religion or any
> theistic belief-
> system to tell you what is good morals or ethics.
> For e.g. Honesty is
> a good ethical standard for humans to abide by. Our
> Reason alone
> gives us many reasons why Honesty is such a
> desirable social
> practice amongst members of a society. We do not
> require religious
> authority to tell us that Honesty is indeed a
> virtue.
>
> At the core of the Platonic system of ethics, hence,
> is the belief
> that the Reasonable Man is also an Ethical Man.
>
> The Indian view of ethics/morality is no less a
> "system of thought"
> than the Platonic one but it is not so clearly
> distinct or so
> completely divorced from religious thought as the
> Greek system is.
> That is because we Indians derive our ethics not
> only from Reason but
> from a much higher basis viz. a theistic outook in
> life.
>
> We believe that Reason is an essential but not
> sufficient basis for a
> system of ethics. Reason, after all, is only one of
> Man's many
> wonderful but nonetheless frail faculties. Our
> faculties often fail
> us. And sometimes our self-interest is so powerful
> that we are driven
> to act in ways that would be utterly un-reasonable
> but yet perfectly
> acceptable to us. Often, we will come up with
> elegant moral
> justifications for the most unreasonable deed of
> ours as long as our
> self-interest is well served. M.K.Gandhi put it very
> beautifully:
>
> "Satan mostly employs comparatively moral
> instruments and the
> language of ethics to give his aims an air of
> respectability."
>
> The Indian (or Hindu) system of ethics is
> inseparable from religious
> thought and feelings. Central to this ethical system
> is the concept
> of "dharma" -- Righteousness. This Righteousness is
> a universal
> concept. Dharma is a very profound and powerful idea
> that is founded
> in ancient Vedantic thought. It is the central
> subject of the
> Bhagavath-gita. 'Dharma' forms a much more
> comprehensive and holistic
> basis on which rests not only the entire gamut of
> social ethics,
> polity and government but also individual morality,
> relationships
> and responsibilty.
>
> We believe this "Dharma" is the Voice of God ('Vox
> Dei') as echoed in
> the eternal strains of the Vedic "sruti". For us
> Indians, an ethical
> value must not only be reasonable but also transcend
> time, space and
> circumstance. Where else but in divine revelation
> can such a lofty
> ethical system be found? Another name for our Vedic
> religion
> is "sanAtana dharma" -- 'sanAtana' means eternal,
> universal;
> and "dharma" means Law, Ethics or Principle. Our
> 'dhArmic system of
> ethics' is thus one founded on the first-principles
> of life, nature,
> of creation and the cosmos. It is founded on a
> natural order that is
> far higher than and quite independent of the human
> condition, affairs
> or preference.
>
> This is the reason why the Indian Vedic system of
> "dharmic" ethics is
> more profound than the wholly Reason-centric
> Platonic one. Once
> again, no one could have said it all better than
> Mahatma Gandhi who
>
=== message truncated ===
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