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ETHICAL DOCTRINES IN JAINISM
certain limit in case of some interests not only proves to be subversive of their own satisfaction but also hampers the gratification of other interests. For example, too much indulgence in bodily appetites leads to bodily and mental ill-health and thereby interferes with other interests also. Thirdly, the interests of the different members of a society may be incompatible with one another; hence this necessitates the application of some ethical principle to arrive at practical harmony. The first two causes bring to lime light the need for an Individual ethics, and the third, for the Social ethics. The problems that present themselves before us are therefore: 1) the problem of the ethical Summum Bonum and 2) the problem of virtues.
Since the dawn of ethical consciousness in the West, diverse approaches have been made in the field of moral investigation. We shall confine our attention however to the solutions given by the Sophists, Socrates, the Socratic schools, Plato, Aristotle, Utilitarians, and Kant; and then we shall compare their views with the Jaina view.
THE PROBLEM OF ETHICAL SUMMUM BONUM: THE SOPHISTS: It is said that, “The Sophists brought philosophy down from heaven to the dwellings of men, and turned the attention from external nature to man himself; for them the proper study of mankind was man."! Hitherto the chief concern of the Greek philosophers was to ascertain the origin of the world. The Sophists not only evinced a negative attitude towards current ontological speculation, but also protested against the enigmatic conclusions of their predecessors, and consequently propounded subjectivity in knowledge by affirming that 'Man is the measure of all things' and that truth is relative to the subjective make up of the individual enunciating the statement.22 Epistemological subjectivism and relativism ended in ethical subjectivism and relativism. The good is entirely subjective and relative to the individual who achieves it. There are as many ethical ends as there are individuals. This reflects a state of moral anarchy And yet notwithstanding the subjectivistic trend of Protagoras in the field of knowledge and morals, the contribution made by him to the entire philosophy should not be underestimated. Man as such was considered to be of supreme importance. The realization of ethical good was made personal, which is tantamount to saying that morality, in its historical beginning, assumed an egoistic form. Now not egoism in
1 History of Philosophy, p. 61.
2 Ibid. p. 57.
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