Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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This is a distinction, which is of great importance in the history of Indian thought which is to be borne in our mind.
There can be no doubt that, like so much else in the world, the conception of value also has undergone important changes in the course of time. There is something unique in the constitution of human nature. This something is the conception of the ideal life, which, as already stated, is intrinsic to the nature of man, and accounts for all his feelings. Whatever is the means of satisfying any of the needs of man is said to have instrumental value and the number of such values are almost infinite. All of them can be brought under the head of Artha; and the ends they serve to, under that of Kama. Both are useful and represent what we have classified as lower values. Instrumental values are precarious and intrinsic values are unstable according to an old Sanskrit work, which however is debatable. Dharma and Moksha are two values that occupy a higher level in every man's life. One never fails to fetch its fruit; and the other is, in itself, eternally satisfying.
Reference
1.
M.Hiriyanna, Indian conception of values.p.1
Ibid.p.3 If we describe this appreciation as a value judgement, it is clear that it is not the same as a judgement in the purely logical sense. To say, e.g. that sugar is sweet is not the same as saying 'I like sugar'. Ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam ca samanyam etad pasubhir naranam jnanam hi tesam adhiko visesah jnanena hinah pasavo bhavanti. Jnana here stands for 'reflective consciousness'. Dharma is a variant reading, which implies the same capacity. Indian conception of values, op.cit.p.7 Balbir Singh, Principles of Ethics p.274. Ibid.p.275.
Ibid.
Ibid.p.276.
For the sake of simplicity of treatment, we shall hereafter speak only of pleasure and not of the absence of pain also; but what is said of the one will, with appropriate changes, apply also to the other.
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