The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Ethics

by Ranganathan, Shyam; Ram-Prasad, Chakravarthi; Tan, Sor-hoon

• ISBN13: 9781472587770
• ISBN10: 1472587774
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-11-17
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Featuring leading scholars from philosophy and religious studies, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Ethics dispels the myth that Indian thinkers and philosophers were uninterested in ethics.

This comprehensive research handbook traces Indian moral philosophy through classical, scholastic Indian philosophy, pan-Indian literature including the Epics, Ayurvedic medical ethics, as well as recent, traditionalist and Neo-Hindu contributions. Contrary to the usual myths about India (that Indians were too busy being religious to care about ethics), moral theory constitutes the paradigmatic differentia of formal Indian philosophy, and is reflected richly in popular literature. Many of the papers make this clear by an analytic explication that draws critical comparisons and contrasts between classical Indian moral philosophy and contemporary contributions to ethics.

By critically addressing ethics as a sub-discipline of philosophy and acknowledging the mistaken marginalization of Indian moral philosophy, this handbook reveals how Indian contributions can illuminate contemporary philosophical research on ethics.

Unlike previous approaches to Indian ethics, this volume is organized in accordance with major topics in moral philosophy. The volume contains an extended introduction, exploring topics in moral semantics, the philosophy of thought, (metaethical and normative) ethical theory, and the politics of scholarship, which serve to show how the diversity of Indian moral philosophy is a contribution to the discipline of ethics. With an overview of Indian moral theory, and a glossary, this is a valuable guide to understanding the past, present and future research directions of a central component of Indian philosophy.

Author Biography

Shyam Ranganathan is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department of York University, Canada.

Table of Contents

Series Preface
Notes on Contributors
Part I. Introduction
1. Ethics, Philosophy, India, Shyam Ranganathan (University of Toronto, Canada)
Part II. Theory: Metaethics and Normative Ethics
Introduction
2. Jain Ethics, Jayandra Soni (International Association of Sanskrit Studies, Austria)
3. Early Buddhism on Reasons and Persons, Jake Davis (Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA)
4. Patañjali's Yoga, Shyam Ranganathan (University of Toronto, Canada)
5. Santideva: The Ethics of Transforming the Mind, William Edelglass (Marlboro College, Vermont, USA)
6. Nyaya Ethics, Kisor Chakrabarti (Ferris State University, USA)
7. Three Vedantas: Three Accounts of Character, Freedom and Responsibility, Shyam Ranganathan (University of Toronto, Canada)
Part III. Applied Ethics
Introduction
8. The Ethics of the Jaiminiya Nyaya Mala of Madhava, Francis X. Clooney (Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, USA)
9. Classical Indian Medical Ethics, Dagmar Wujastyk (Research Priority Program, Asia and Europe, Zurich University, Switzerland)
10. Ethical Modelling and the Hermeneutics of Sanskrit Parables, Ajay Rao (University of Chicago, USA)
Part IV. Politics and Morality
Introduction
11. Neo-Hindu Ethics, Jyotirmaya Sharma (University of Hyderabad, India)
12. Gandhi, A. Raghuramaraju (University of Hyderabad, India)
13. The Ethics of the Mahabharata, Ashwani Peetush (Wilfred Laurier University, Canada)
Glossary
Annotated Bibliography
Index