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ETHICAL DOCTRINES IN JAINISM
agrees with Mill as regards the heterogeneity of pleasures, but introduces the principle of internal and external Ahimsā for differentiating different pleasures. This principle is far more comprehensive than that of "native sense of dignity.” The man who performs a good act out of social feeling shall not be able to do it at the risk of his own pleasure. The principle of Ahimsā which is more in tune with the man's inner nature pre-eminently possesses altruistic note, and is in conformity with self-sacrifice for the good of others. Sidgwick's utilitarianism is called "Intuitional utilitarianism”, inasmuch as his theory is based on certain principles known intuitively by practical reason. The pleasures of others are to be regarded as of equal weight with our own. Sidgwick could not reconcile rational self-love with benevolence, and he is confronted with a difficulty known as dualism of the Practical Reason. Above all, we may say that the ethical ideal "greatest happiness of the greatest number”, will be modified by Jainism as the greatest happiness of all. Jainism speaks with the vulgar in pronouncing the highest good in terms of happiness or pleasure, but in fact the highest good is the realization of Ahimsā or self, and happiness is an accompaniment. Thus Jainism thinks with the learned. Utilitarian writers on the other hand think with the vulgar exclusively, and emphasize feeling as against the cognitive and conative aspects of life. Mere feeling is an abstraction. “Feeling is a quality of a mental state which cannot exist apart from other elements any more than colour or shape can exist without matter." "Our ends are our happiness, not merely means to happiness.”
KANT: The highest good, according to Kant, consists in the performance of actions out of respect for the moral law which commands categorically or unconditionally, and irrespective of circumstances, consequences and inclinations. “There is nothing in the world or even out of it” says he, "that can be called good without qualification except a good will.” The good will is a rational will willing in obedience to moral imperative which is the expression of man's real self, of the very principle of his being.' The categorical imperative inherent in reason itself lays down 'Act only on the maxim which thou canst at the same time will to become a universal law,' and entails a society of rational beings, a kingdom of ends. There is no quarrel of Jainism with Kantian formulations,
1 Short History of Ethics, p. 251. 3 History of Philosophy, p. 443.
2 Fundamentals of Ethics, p. 90.
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