Nalin Swaris: Buddhism, Human Rights and Social Renewal

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Foundations of the Western Philosophy of Right - 20 condemnation of Galileo needs to be understood in this context. If the implications of Galileo’s theory were translated into political theory, it would mean the end of the feudal order that the Roman Church defended and according to which its own internal structure had been organised. The old philosophical constructs of fixed and unchanging substance needed to be replaced with a new processbased model. German philosopher Friedrich Hegel accomplished this task. Plato held that the visible world was a static and shadowy reflection of Universal Ideas conceived by an Absolute Mind, or Absolute Spirit. Hegel shook this Platonic world-view and argued that far from being eternally perfect and self-sufficient, the Absolute Spirit had been in the throes of coming to self-awareness through a long historical process culminating in emergence of the Prussian State. Hegel merged the Christian idea of a personal and creative God with this new interpretation of the Absolute Spirit. The Christian Ethic or the “Spirit of Christianity”, had finally incarnated itself and was personified in the Leader of the Prussian State, the Kaiser. The State was the embodiment of neighbourly Christian ethical imperative because it finally superseded the perpetual clash of conflicting interests in civil society. Obedience to the State became the highest moral imperative because it reconciled the conflict between particular interests by subsuming them in the general interest of all citizens. The mystical yearning of the little self to be absolved in an Absolute Self found its political expression in the total surrender of the naturally egoistic citizen to the will of the Kaiser and the State. Hegel laid the theoretical foundation for modern totalitarianism by [22] blending religious mysticism with the political will to absolute power: Absolute Spirit provided and ideological rationale for the spirit of absolutism. Among the Enlightenment’s positive achievements was its rejection of blind submission to ‘irrational’ beliefs that had produced centuries of bloodshed. The Enlightenment heralded the dawn of the so-called Modern Age: Immanuel Kant, the “Prophet of the Enlightenment”, drew on images from Judaeo-Christian tradition to declare that the Enlightenment marked a secular “Exodus” from the Age of Infancy and Myth (mythos) to an Age of Maturity and
Foundations of the Western Philosophy of Right - 21 Reason (logos). Besides the near-religious belief in historical progress, the Enlightenment produced a humanistic world-view that has had a lasting impact not only on European society but on all societies. Having abandoned its geocentric view of the universe, humankind could now finally revolve around its ‘true sun’: humanity itself. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the culmination of a process that began with the Enlightenment. Even though Europeans were involved in the slave trade and subjugation of non-European peoples at the time, the Enlightenment produced ideas that would inevitably clash with the savage practices of Christian states at home and abroad. One direct impact of empiricism was replacement of barbaric trials by ordeal, practised by both secular and ecclesiastical authorities, with the Law of Evidence. Changing social conditions provided fertile soil for the Enlightenment, and gradually barbarous practices like slavery, torture, public burning, stoning, impaling, drawing and quartering, flaying, trampling to death by horses, boiling in oil or immersing in saltpeter were abolished. These gruesome punishments were public spectacles calculated not so much to punish the culprit as to instil terror into the populace. Defiance of the law was an affront to the sovereignty of the Church and State, and had to be publicly atoned for. The tarnished majesty of power had to be redressed. The terrifying atrocious rituals and unbridled exercise of vindictive justice found theoretical expression in the theology of expiation of sins, through suffering as a form of divine satisfaction. [23] With the spread and eventual triumph of the Enlightenment’s ideas, judicial punishment could no longer be justified as the rightful vengeance of a sovereign on a rebellious subject. Without backing from the State, the Church could no longer impose barbarous punishment on subjects branded heretics or schismatic. The Holy Inquisition, which condemned men and women to death by torture, was renamed the Holy Office. The practice of scrutinising and punishing remained in religious form, the ultimate punishment for grievous sins or heresy being excommunication. According to Catholic theology, if a person dies without being reconciled to the Church, he or she will burn forever in the fires of
Page 1 and 2: Buddhism, Human Rights and Social R
Page 3 and 4: 3 Table of Contents A Note on Canon
Page 5 and 6: 5 A Note on Canonical References [5
Page 7 and 8: Foreword - 7 physicians to diagnose
Page 9 and 10: Foreword - 9 the belief that the se
Page 11 and 12: Introduction - 11 the mandate to pr
Page 13 and 14: Introduction - 13 [14] against him
Page 15 and 16: Introduction - 15 was a social move
Page 17 and 18: Foundations of the Western Philosop
Page 19: Foundations of the Western Philosop
Page 33 and 34: 33 Chapter 2, Brahmin Political The
Page 35 and 36: Brahmin Political Theory - 35 divis
Page 37 and 38: Brahmin Political Theory - 37 deter
Page 39 and 40: Basic Premises of the Buddha’s Me
Page 45 and 46: 45 Chapter 4, Basic Premises of the
Page 51 and 52: 51 Chapter 5, The Buddha’s Declar
Page 53 and 54: The Buddha’s Declaration of Human
Page 55 and 56: The Buddha’s Theory of Right - 55
Page 63 and 64: 63 Chapter 7, The Buddha’s Theory
Page 65 and 66: The Buddha’s Economic Philosophy
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The Buddha’s Economic Philosophy
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79 Chapter 8, The Buddha’s Econom
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An Alternative Model for Society: t
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103 Chapter 10, Early Buddhism and
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Early Buddhism and Later Centuries
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Early Buddhism and Later Centuries
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The Fourteen Rock Edicts Appendix -
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Appendix - 111 with exerting myself
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Appendix - 113 King Piyadasi, does
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Appendix - 115 vast, but much has b
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Appendix - 117 border areas with co
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Appendix - 119 the rajukas have bee
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Appendix - 121 have set up Dhamma p
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Glossary of Key Terms - 123 discrim
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125 References [139] Aristotle. Pol
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127 About the Author [141] Nalin Sw
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Nalin Swaris: Buddhism, Human Rights and Social Renewal

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