Preface

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or replay – of class or cultural predilections as rational interest, as
perhaps are seminars and books on rationality! ‘Rational’ is
ultimately always what we are, or I am; ‘irrational’ is what others,
or you, are. To paraphrase von Clausewitz, ‘Reason is nothing
more than the continuation of prejudice by other means.’
Implicit Presuppositions
Two other glaring presuppositions in discussions of rationality
need brief mention. These are ‘the psychic unity of mankind’ and
‘homogeneity’. The idea that human nature is the same
everywhere rests upon a questionable distinction of the individual
versus society (which led Durkheim among others into a dubious
ontology, Lukes 1973a: 3ff.). For it makes little sense to account
for variation socially, while holding human nature constant, unless
the two are held to be distinct. Arguably individuals and societies
are not reified entities but relationships, in which cultural
conceptions of one affect the other, or better both are mutually
constituted (cf. Bhaskar 1979: 39-47, on a naturalist attempt to
retain the dichotomy). The impact of hypostatizing the distinction
has been to create endless confusion as to whether rationality is to
be predicated of collective representations, individual humans or
whatever. It does not solve the problem of rationality: it merely
clouds the issue.
Now Balinese commonly start from an intriguingly different set
of presuppositions about human nature, which imply the diversity,
rather than unity of human beings. The human psyche has three
constituents, familiar to Indologists, the triguna: sattwa,
knowledge or purity, raja(h), emotion or passion, and tamas,
desire or ignorance. These are linked to three goals of human life,
the triwarga: darma, the disposition to do good, art(h)a, the
pursuit of wealth or prestige, and kama, the enjoyment of sensual
pleasures. The Balinese Chain of Being is founded upon three
processes also: bayu, energy, sabda, speech, and idep, thought
(see Chapter 2 for a discussion). Plants are energy systems only;
animals have both energy and the capacity for simple sounds;
humans possess thoughts as well; while Gods shade off into pure
thought.