Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

SR No.: 006955
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 277

VIII. THE JAINA AND THE WESTERN TYPES OF ETHICAL DOCTRINES
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ethical thought is sufficiently shown in the references that Plato and Aristotle make to the definitions and maxims of poets and sages."1 But the transition from such utterances to moral philosophy is quite as late as the origination of the Sophistic speculation. Thus the Sophists may be regarded as the pioneers in ethical science. The ethical speculation of the Jainas can be easily traced to a divine personality of the 23rd prophet, Pārsvanātha, who is believed to have lived in the 8th century B.C., though the Jaina tradition claims a remote antiquity for the commencement of its philosophy.
THE PROBLEM AND THE APPROACH: The normative science of ethics investigates the ultimate end of human conduct or what is known as the Summum Bonum or the supreme good of human life. In the words of Prof. SIDGWICK, "According to Aristotelian view, the primary subject of ethical investigation is all that is included under the notion of what is ultimately good or desirable for man; all that is reasonably chosen or sought by him, not as a means to some ulterior end, but for itself.”2 Thus ethics is required to be distinguished from positive sciences, inasmuch as it does not describe but evaluates. It estimates human conduct in terms of rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness and the like. The term conduct is another name for voluntary and habitual actions. It signifies deliberate actions. These deliberate actions presuppose persons performing them in accordance with some end in view. The actions may be right or wrong, the persons may be virtuous or vicious and lastly the end may be good or bad. "Moral virtue may be defined generally as the habitual tendency to pursue, always and with consciousness, the best attainable ends.": Again, the performance of deliberate actions entails, either directly or indirectly or in the both ways, the satisfaction of one or more human interests. But the science of ethics might lose all significance, if the mere existence of such interests in human nature would yield warrant for their gratification. At the outset, it may appear that ethical inquiry is unnecessary and frivolous, but this view must needs be abandoned in view of the following considerations. First, the satisfaction of all interests of the individual is impossible.. Hence preference must be given to some interests by keeping in view some principle of ethical selection. Secondly, the transgression of a
1 Outlines of the History of Ethics, p. 12. 3 Short History of Ethics, p. 18.
2 Outlines of the History of Ethics, pp. 1-2. * Short History of Ethics, pp. 5-6.