Traditional and Contemporary Ethics Western and Indian

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Joshi Harsiddh M. (b. 1934) graduated from University of Bombay in 1955. He did his Post-graduate study in Philosophy and Study in Law in Rajkot and Surat and obtained the degrees from Gujarat University in 1958. He worked as Lecturer in Logic an Philosophy in Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, D K V College, Jamnagar, M N College, Visnagar, Senior Lecturer in Gujarat College, Ahmedabad, Professor and Head of Philosophy, Department, Dharmendra Singhji College, Rajkot. Later, in 1982 he joined as Reader andthen as Professor and Head of Philosophy Department in M S University of Baroda. He retired in 1994 from University of Baroda. He worked as a UGC Research Fellow in Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar from ’94 to ’96. In ’67, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis on ‘Nature of Mind-A Philosophico-Psychological Study’ under the guidance of Prof. A G Javadeker and was awareded the degree by M S University of Baroda.

Joshi presented several papers in Sessions of Indian Philosophical Congress, Akhil Bharatiya Darshan Parishad and Gujarat Tattajnana Parishad. A few of his Gujarati books were published by University Granth Nirman Board, Ahmedabad. At present, he works as Ph.D guide in M S University of Baroda. He is member, General Council of Indian Council Philosophical Research, New Delhi. Now, he is working on UGC research entitled ‘Comparative Metaphysics of F H Bradley and Sri Aurobindo.

Present book expounds and combines in its comprehensive compass the Traditional as well as Contemporary Moral philosophy, Epicureanism, Stoicism and Socratic Ethics are not only the most ancient schools of Greek Moral Philosophy, but they reappear in Modern Times in Schools of Hedonism, Utilitarianism, Categorical Imperative. The topics of Moral Judgment, Standards of Goodness, and Criteria such as Happiness, Virtue, Intuitionism and wisdom have been dealt with critically. There are subjects of Evolutionism, Moral Progress and Theories of Punishment discussed. In Contemporary Moral Philosophy, the controversy of natural and non-natural property of Goodness, Meta-Ethics, Emotivism, Ethics and Language, Belief and Mood, Right and Good, Scope of Reason, Natural and Moral adjective, Prescriptivism, Prescriptivism, Derivation of Normative conclusion and Existentialistic Ethics have been thoroughly treated and critically considered.

There is comparative survey of Western and Indian approaches to Ethics. Shruti and Smriti, Moral thought of Epics, Samhitas, Karma yoga of Geeta and Concept of "Dharma" have been systematically considered. Problem of Freedom as Psychological and Moral Freedom have been treated. Jain Ethics, Doctrine of Karma, Anuvrata, Samvara and Nirjara have been critically articulated. .Gandhian concept of Satyagraha, Non-Violence and Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Philosophy in general and in different systems of Vedanta in particular have been expounded and their relevance shown in Modern Humanistic and Renascent Times. The author undertakes the most recent issues of Moral Concern in Philosophy.

A book on Ethics is bound to raise eyebrows as it demands not only adequate knowledge but discipline in conduct and will. It is well known that in ancient Greece civics and politics were not believed to be separate disciplines of knowledge but they were believed to be a single piece of knowledge. From the point of view of problem, knowing and doing were not thought to be separate issues by Socrates, but thought to be a single problem. He held that virtue is knowledge, which he ought to do. In Indian thought, self-knowledge and self-discipline are linked together. One cannot claim knowledge without controlling self. An affinity exists between ancient Greek thought with that of Indian tradition. It continued up to Plato and Aristotle, who thought over virtue, State and vice spoiling the individual character. This however, was served in modern and contemporary moral philosophy except in certain thinkers such as Spinoza, Kant, Bradley, Hare, Dewey and Sartre.

Plato divided the ideal society into three parts and assigned virtue to each part such as reason, courage and appetite, he thought that each individual and such group in society have certain temper, nature and character similar to certain aspect of society. Just as matter, life, mind and cultural constituents have their counterpart in cosmic manifestation similarly, individual and social existence and interaction have definite coherence. Individual microcosm has its macrocosmic expression in the world at large. Just as the question of pleasure is not limited to human beings, it affects birds and animals too in like manner, misery, unhappiness, evil and hygiene are those issues and phenomena belonging to all living and vital beings of the world. There is a distinction between ‘Morality’ and ‘Morals’ and it is the former which is universal and the problem facing such standard is felt by all more or less. Pleasure as a quality has not been taken into consideration by Psychological Hedonism with the result that question of true happiness lingers and its value is not adequately discussed by Hedonists. In fact, the standard of value in Moral philosophy is largely ignored and its cognitive as well as affective aspects are not discussed. Ethics, as moral science centres round the quality of value, its standard of satisfaction, background of discrimination between good and evil, transient and permanent, intrinsic and ephemeral, ultimate attribute of Ananda belonging to reality. Bradley in his well-known work ‘Ethical Studies’ discusses Pleasure for the sake of pleasure and Duty for the sake of Duty, and shows the shortcomings of Hedonism and doctrine of Categorical Imperative to arrive at his own principle of ‘My Station and its Duties’ which he thinks is capable of overcoming the limitations of abstract view of Hedonism and Categorical Imperative.

**Book's Contents and Sample Pages**