Ethics and Neetishastra

This file is an old one and about general understanding of the terms "Ethics" and "Neetishastra". Both are considered as synonyms and and often taken in the same sense but there are slight difference between the meanings of both the terms, etymologically. Those differences are marked out in this PPT.
This is being uploaded as a first sample.

1. - Dr Neeti Singh MA, PhD (Philosophy) Asst. Prof. (Contractual) St. Columba’s College, Hazaribagh-825302, Jharkhand. ‘Ethics’ and ‘ Nītiśāstra ’

2. Ethics If we leave out Nītiśāstra and take only Ethics, the western part of it, ethics has at least four tasks: Normative tasks, Meta-ethical tasks, Virtue-ethical tasks, and Applied tasks which construct its four major branches; Normative ethics, Meta-ethics, Virtue ethics, and Applied ethics respectively. Normative ethics or prescriptive ethics is the branch of ethics concerned with establishing how things should or ought to be, how to value them, which things are good or bad, and which actions are right and wrong. Meta-ethics is concerned primarily with the meaning of ethical judgments, and seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments and how they may be supported or defended. Applied ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to apply normative ethical theories to resolve value-loaded practical problems in real-life situations. Virtue ethics deals with aretaic or character and deontic or intrinsic dispositions that man qua man should inculcate by virtue of moral actions in life-situations. Ethics or moral philosophy is critical inquiry into moral issues such as norms for evaluating human moral actions, truth and meaning of moral language, nature and kinds of human values and virtues, and resolving value-loaded practical problems in real life cases by applying standard moral theories.

3. Ni ̄tiśā stra Nītiśāstra comes from two Saṅsḳrta words n īti and śāstra where n īti is ‘to take along’ human beings through the path of moral goodness rightness, and sastra is its study or inuiry . In Śukranīti and Kāmandakīya Nītis̄ara , Nītiśāstra is defined as nayanānnītirucyate . ( Śukranīti 1/56 & Kāmandakīya Nītis̄ara2/15 ) Nītiśāstra is a broader field than merely ethics as we find that all the four tasks are there in Indian Nītiśāstra whatever are in western ethics but apart from that what is not generally in western ethics is also in Indian philosophy under Nītiśā stra . Tasks performed under Nītiśāstra are about discussion of: Ṛta (moral system) Ṛṇa Yajn͂a Nyāya (Justice) Kartavya (Duty) Śreya (Good) Sadācāra (Right conduct) Mūlyāṅkana (Evaluation), Viśleṣana (Analysis of moral concepts) Varnāśrama Puruṣārthas , Abhudaya Niḥśreyas i.e. Mokṣa . The one and very important task of Nītiśāstra is to define the relation between the laukika and pāramārthika jagat in terms of the theory of puruṣārthas and the levels of kalyāṇa, abhudaya and niḥśreyas . It can be said that Nītiśāstra is a study of ṛta which is understood by the terms of satya , dharma, nīti , and nyāya etc. Hence, it is a study of all these in a manner so that a moral system can be established in the world in order to maintain law and order, politics, good governance, and religious institutions.

4. Similarities and dissimilarities between Ethics and Nītiśāstra Ethics and Nītiśāstra have some tasks common and some different on which ground we make differentiate between the two. On similar ground both share normative, meta-ethical, applied and virtue ethical tasks. Alike Nītiśāstra , Ethics does not basically concerned about the liberation in the same way Indian Nītiśāstra is. Ethics is a separate branch of philosophy but Nītiśāstra is an integral part of Indian philosophy which cannot be separeetly dealt. Nītiśāstra has a wider nature than ethics. In present time both are taken as synonyms but on some grounds both vary to each other. Nevertheless, we understand both as similar and translated version of each other.

5. Conclusion Ethics and Nītiśāstra are not the same things as when we go deep into the details of both the disciplines, we find that ethics can be found in the Nītiśāstra but Nītiśāstra is much more than mere ethics. To know the exact definition of both, we must see the tasks performed under them and then only we can find out the differences and similarities between the both. All the tasks of ethics are also the tasks of Nītiśāstra but all the Nītiśāstrīya functions are not found in ethics. So Indian philosophy has a different perspective to deal with moral sides and facets of human beings.