Tommi Lehtonen

This article examines the perspectives on war and migration presented in the Bhagavadgītā and the Law Code of Manu, two ancient Hindu texts. The Bhagavadgītā promotes warrior ethics which emphasise self-mastery and duty without attachment, framing the justification for war as both a moral and spiritual probe. The Law Code of Manu primarily regulates everyday life while also addressing aspects of religious devotion and the social consequences thereof. The Manu code of war emphasises ethical conduct, the protection of innocents, and restraint, illustrating a robust humanitarian tradition in ancient Indian thought. The Bhagavadgītā promotes a balance between universal compassion and practical responsibility, it acknowledges the necessity for responsible governance and a vision of humanity unified by the shared spiritual essence of all beings. The Law Code of Manu does not specifically address immigration, although it delineates rules for individuals travelling abroad, particularly regarding their familial duties and responsibilities.

The purpose of this article is to explore and analyse how globalisation and cultural diversi-ty are addressed in the Finnish national curriculum for comprehensive school. The study focuses on both the broad considerations of globalisation and cultural diversity as well as the unique challenges of various school subjects in addressing these topics. The analysis is particularly concerned with the ethical implications of the curriculum’s perspectives on globalisation and cultural diversity. The overarching conclusion is that the Finnish curricu-lum represents a kind of mixed model of ethics in which utilitarian considerations are em-phasised but refined with duty-ethical considerations arising from universal human rights.

This article sheds new light on the much-discussed ethical dilemma in the Bhagavadgītā concerning whether human duty or the consequences of action should be the focus of ethical concern. According to a common view, the text advances duty-based ethics through the mouth of Krishna, whereas Arjuna appeals to consequentialist considerations. In contrast, another view argues that Krishna’s ethical thinking is a distinctive kind of rule-consequentialism that conceives of the twin consequences of liberation (mokṣa) and the common good (lokasaṅgraha) as intrinsically valuable. This article argues that the concept of desireless action (niṣkāmakarma) is crucial to answering the ethical dilemma in the Bhagavadgītā. Several pieces of evidence suggest that the text does not associate desireless action with a desire to act for the common good but instead conveys an attitude called, for lack of a better expression, ‘inaction in action and action in inaction’ (4.18) toward the results and consequences of action in general. When individuals act with this attitude, they focus on the action itself (i.e., changes corresponding to the action), not its ultimate effect (i.e., results and consequences). Thus, in acting, individuals should have an attitude akin to the attitude taken in inaction, in that they do not expect the outcome of the action to be as envisioned or to be to their advantage—nor do they not consider themselves morally entitled to the outcome of the action. Such an attitude of non-ownership transcends the distinction between duty-based ethics and consequentialist ethics, for the doers of actions consider themselves as an intermediate link in the long chain of causes and effects, regardless of their personal merit, not as individuals who deserve praise for their dutiful work and accomplishments.

What traits characterize the Finnish Core Curriculum’s approach to globalization? To answer this question, we examine the value base of both the previous and the current curriculum, paying attention to the shift between them. To map the traits, we adopt a two-fold understanding of globalization as something that both enriches and impoverishes cultures and create two perspectives (framings) that view globalization from these extremes. We find out that the aim expressed in the value base has shifted from educating the learner on the diversity of the domestic culture to educating them on intercultural communication skills, paving the way to a supranational culture.

This article analyses the concept of sufficiency in relation to sustainability and discusses ethical implications for sustainable organisation in time and place. We identify three foundational conceptualisations of sufficiency related to sustainability: (1) a limits model that starts with objective boundaries imposed by the biosphere and basic human needs; (2) a preference model that treats sufficiency as a subjective inclination for moderation defined situationally; and (3) a balancing model that seeks to integrate the objective limits and subjective preferences by focussing on action embedded in the socio-ecological context. This includes balancing the needs of humans with those of non-humans. The limits model builds on universal duty, the preference model on preference utilitarianism and the balancing model on action-oriented virtue ethics. The balancing model of sufficiency is well suited to meeting the needs of present and future generations as well as delivering intra- and inter-generational justice not limited to humans.

The Bhagavadgītā, part of the sixth book of the Hindu epic The Mahābhārata, offers a practical approach to mokṣa, or liberation, and freedom from saṃsāra, or the cycle of death and rebirth. According to the approach, known as karmayoga, salvation results from attention to duty and the recognition of past acts that inform the present and will direct the future. In the Bhagavadgītā, Kṛṣṇa advocates selfless action as the ideal path to realizing the truth about oneself as well as the ultimate reality. Kṛṣṇa proclaims that humans have rights only to actions and not to their results, whether good or bad. Therefore, humans should not desire any results whatsoever. The prisoner’s dilemma is a fictional story that shows why individuals who seek only their personal benefit meet worse outcomes than those possible by cooperating with others. The dilemma provides an effective, albeit often overlooked, method for studying the Hindu principle of niṣkāmakarma that is arguably the central teaching of the Bhagavadgītā. In the context of the prisoner’s dilemma, a prisoner who wants to uphold niṣkāmakarma may choose one of two decision-making strategies: to be indifferent and leave the decision to chance or to either pursue the common good or the other person’s benefit instead of his or her own. Assuming that followers of niṣkāmakarma can be goal-oriented, the second strategy is more appropriate than the first, as long as one pursues unselfish goals and remains both indifferent and uncommitted to personal benefit.

The aim of this article is to provide an epistemological account of the concept of a point of view. To clear the ground for such an account, the following questions must be addressed: What are points of view? What roles or functions do points of view play in human thinking and information acquisition? Why do points of view have such roles or functions? The distinction between the different components of points of view helps us to identify, diagnose, and understand ways in which various points of view direct and define human thinking. The second part of the article tests the credibility and functionality of the concept of a point of view developed in the first part. The testing takes place by applying the concept in question to the analysis of a classical Indian text, The Law Code of Manu.

The prisoner’s dilemma is a fictional story that shows why individuals who seek only their personal benefit meet worse outcomes than those possible by cooperating with others. The dilemma provides an effective, albeit often overlooked, method for studying the Hindu principle of “desireless action” (niṣkāmakarma). In the context of the prisoner’s dilemma, a prisoner who wants to uphold the principle of “desireless action” may choose one of two decision-making strategies: to be indifferent and leave the decision to chance or to either pursue the common good or the other person’s benefit instead of his or her own. Assuming that followers of niṣkāmakarma can be goal-oriented, the second strategy is more appropriate than the first, as long as one pursues unselfish goals and remains both indifferent and uncommitted to personal benefit. This interpretation is tested and further discussed in this article in light of the values of the modern environmental and anti-consumerist degrowth movement.

In this paper, I will introduce and argue for a new view on religious faith and language, a view that focuses on the use and context of use of religious expressions. I call this view implicaturism. As one may guess, ‘implicaturism’ comes from ‘implicature’, a term coined by Paul Grice. For Grice, implicature is a technical term for certain kinds of inferences that are drawn from statements without those inferences being logical implications or entailments. In the view of religious faith and language, implicaturism denotes the claims about the existence of God or other supernatural beings as pragmatic conclusions of the expressions used in religious practice, not the ground or presupposition of religious practice. In other words, in religious context, the claims of the form “X exists” (e.g. “God exists”) or “there are Xs” (e.g. “There are angeles”) are inferences that are based on prayers and worship expressions and their relatedbackground assumptions. This pattern of reasoning is not deductive, but abductive, thus inference from consequences to a possible cause. This kind of inference is logically invalid, in that the conclusion “God exists” is not a logical consequence of the premises: the religious expressions. The existential claims in religion (”God exists” or “There are angels” as examples) are thus some sort of a posteriori reasons or explanations for religious behaviour and related expressions, not their prior presuppositions.

The aim of this article is to provide an epistemological account of the concept of a point of view. The focus of the article is componential and therefore different variables in the concept of a point of view will be discussed. The article concludes that the concept of a point of view refers to mental viewing or rational consideration, which has many constituents, some of which relate to the observing subject, some to the tools of observing, and some to the object of observation. Most components of points of view are related to the subject of the point of view and his or her interests

There are uses of the term merit in Indian religions which also appear in secular contexts, but in addition there are other uses that are not encountered outside religion. Transfer of merit is a specific doctrine in whose connection the term merit is used with an intention which is not the same as that found in nonreligious contexts. Two main types of transfer of merit can be distinguished. First, the transfer of merit has been associated with certain ritual practices in Hinduism and in Buddhism. Another main type of transfer of merit is connected with Mahāyāna belief in bodhisattvas' loving-kindness towards other beings. In the orthodox Hindu schools, in Hnayāna Buddhism and in Jainism, transfer of merit has been rejected on account of the doctrine of karma according to which the person can acquire karmic outcomes for only those actions he or she has performed by himself.