World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

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the ethics of nuclear energy, bio-medical ethics, business ethics etc. There is obviously a proliferation of literature on the subject as well.
This does not mean neither that the field of moral values has proved a blind alley for students of ethics nor that there has not been any convincing or comprehensive definition of values to guide them. From a plethora, two definitions may be given as illustrative examples, one by the Cambridge scholar Paul Roubiczek: "A value expresses the significance - great or small - which man ascribes to matters related to a particular activity or experience or to his life in general and thus provides him with guidance for his behavior" (Paul Roubiczek, Ethical Values in the Age of Science, 1969), and the other by the well-known sociologist Anthony Giddens that values are "ideas held by human individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good or bad. Differing values represent key aspects of variations in human culture. What individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live" (A. Giddens, Sociology 1973, Revised edition, 2007).
When we examine the literature on moral values it becomes clear again that the subject matter is traditionally circumscribed by three questions: (1) what ought we to do? (2) what is the meaning of good? (3) are we able to do what we ought to do? (P. Roubiczek, 1969). When we examine Gandhi's ideas on ethics it could be seen that he had given prime consideration to these questions and tried to answer them through his life and writings. What is the life worth living or, in other words, what is the morally right way of living, was a question that engaged his close attention from his very early days. The stories of Harischandra, Sravana and Prahalada, which illustrated the significance of living a moral or value based life, prompted Gandhi to ask himself 'why can't I be like them?' Again, when he read Ruskin's Unto This Last his mind was searching for principles that would guide him in day to day living. Gandhi has reported to us that the first lesson that he picked from Ruskin's book was on the mode of life worth living: "The life of labourḤḤis the life worth living." A life based on moral principles or values presupposes a concept of morality and values. Hence the question arises as to what were Gandhi's views or presuppositions on morality and values.
Gandhi believed that there is a Law operating in this universe and it is because of this Law that the universe is held together as a cosmos, and why it is not a chaos. He also believed that corresponding to this physical law there was a law operating at the level of human transactions and he called it a Moral Law. It was Gandhi's considered view that every human being must try to comprehend this Moral Law (which he equated with Truth and Nonviolence) and organize her/his life in harmony with this Moral Law. According to Gandhi human life not only had a meaning but also a purpose and the purpose for him was self-realization or God/Truth realization or moksha. He wrote in the Introduction to his autobiography as follows: "What I want
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