Ethics in the Mahabharata: A Philosophical Inquiry for Today

Contents Foreword ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements xix Introduction xxiii Chapter 1 Grounds of Morality in the Mahabharata 1 I Three Kinds of Duties 2 II Dharma- The Two Senses: The Utilitarian Thrust with a Difference 9 III Truth: The First Principle of Morality 14 IV Conclusion 17 Chapter 2 Morality in Practice in the Mahabharata 23 I The Goals of the Mahabharata 23 II The Overpowering Bhishma 25 III Sri Krishna in Contrast 32 IV The Caste System 36 V Conclusion 48 Chapter 3 The New Value System 51 I The Difference at First Blush 51 II Satya (Factual Truth), Rta (Truth as Value) and Dharma (Righteousness in Conduct): The Existential Frame of ' Deconstruction' 58 III Amartya Sen's Critique on the Gita for Alleged Non- Consequentialism: Kant and the Gita 82 Chapter 4 The Principle of Morality: The Contingent A Priori 96 I Human Rights and Variable Morality 98 II The Moral Constraint: The Witgensteinian form of life Nested Existentially in the ' Chomskyan' Sting 100 III Freud's Criticism of love as a Value 112 IV Tagore's Red Oleanders 121 Chapter 5 The Central Philosophy of the Mahabharata 124 I The Universal Message of the Mahabharata 125 II The Place of the Gita in the Mahabharata 133 III The Message of the Gita 140 Notes 145 Glossary 161 Select Bibliography 167 Index 173