Transcript Philosophy 224

PHILOSOPHY 224
HUMAN NATURE IN THE HINDU TRADITION
THE UPANISHADS
THE UPANISHADS
• The Upanishads belong to what is called the Brahmanic
tradition. The earliest of them date from around 800 BCE.
• This is far from the earliest of the textual traditions of Hinduism.
Vedic literature significantly predates it.
• They too are compilations of earlier, mostly oral
traditions.
• As an aside, it is interesting to note that, though the oral
tradition upon which these texts is based significantly
predates their consolidation in written form, this
consolidation occurred within a few hundred years of
the first stirrings of philosophy in Greece and China. There
must have been something in the air.
BRIHAD ARANYAKA UPANISHAD
• Representing not a single authorial voice, but a disparate (in
both outlook and time) one, this text is the largest (and is
thought to be the oldest) of the Upanishadic texts.
• The text starts with a cosmogony: an account of the nature,
origin, and development of the universe. The particular story
we get shares quite a bit with other cosmogonies from this
period.
• The name given to the original principle is "Atman" which here
is given a material significance by the translation of the term
as "body." It is also gendered (male).
• But this is not mere matter. For, it is immediately self-conscious,
the suggestion being that self-consciousness is primary (first
and fundamental).
• This perhaps explains why the cosmogony we get here is focused on
living things rather than non-living.
• Notice too the role played by etymology.
EMOTIONS AS THE ENGINE
• Creation initially proceeds in a way unique to
this cosmogony: fear.
• But fear quickly turns into the absence of
pleasure, and it is this lack which leads to the
first diversity: gender.
• This diversity in turn produces the first created
life: humans.
• The close cousin of pleasure, shame, then
explains the rest of living creation (the female
principle fleeing from the “incestuous” manner
of this procreation).
ATMAN AND BRAHMAN
• At the end of this creation story we find this surprising
statement: "I alone am the creation, for I created all
this.” This phrase highlights the ambiguity of the notion of
“Atman.” Atman is both a principle of individuation and
a principle of universality.
• Much of the disagreement between the various sects of
Hinduism revolves around how to understand this ambiguity.
• Immediately following this, we find the introduction of
the term “Brahman.” It is often used synonymously with
Atman. When they are distinguished, it is usually to
connect Atman to the individuated moments of the
whole and Brahman with the universal.
• In this sense, Brahman is reality at it’s most basic, the
fundamental metaphysical category.
BRAHMANIC COSMOGONY
• From the perspective of the ultimate
metaphysical standpoint, we are offered
another account of creation on p. 12, §10.
• What unifies the two treatments is the
insistence on the fundamental irreducibility
of unity and diversity.
• This is the significance of the atman/brahman
couple.
• The world is at the same time one eternal and
unchanging whole and a constantly changing
individuated plurality.
WHERE DO HUMANS FIT?
• As you might expect, the ontology articulated
in the Upanishad exhibits this same unity of unity
and diversity structure.
• Human beings are not individuals first and part
of a large whole second. The ultimate self
(atman) is what it is only as part of the whole
(Brahman).
• What we take to be our self (our ego) is just a
mask that covers over (even from ourselves) our
ultimate nature as atman/brahman.
THE KATHA UPANISHAD
• The Katha Upanishad was likely composed a
some three hundred years after the Brihad
Aranyaka (early 400s BCE.
• It is one of the most well-known of the
Upanishadic texts in the non-Hindu world,
perhaps because one of it’s principle themes is
death and immortality.
• The excerpt from the Brihad Aranyaka
Upanishad that we discussed was of primarily
metaphysical and ontological significance.
With the Katha Upanishad the diagnostic and
prescriptive elements become our focus.
SETTING THE STAGE
• Naciketas wants to know the significance of
death.
• Going right to the source, he asks the
personification of death, who, though initially
reluctant, ultimately agrees to point the way to
Naciketas.
• It’s worth noting that death’s agreement comes
after a test: the temptation of worlds goods.
• This test anticipates a fundamental distinction which
becomes the focus of Chapter 2.
GOOD VS. GRATIFYING
• Death makes an initial distinction that is key to the
diagnosis: good vs. gratifying.
• This is a very common distinction, one that is central to the
diagnosis of many of the THNs that we will consider.
• The distinction between the good and the gratifying is
mapped onto a distinction between the wise person
and the fool, which in turn is coordinated to a distinction
between knowledge and ignorance.
• In a move whose commonness is worthy of some
thought, this last distinction is in turn connected to a
distinction between the real self (atman/Brahman) and
the ego/mask self and ultimately to the distinction
between the world of mere appearance and the 'true'
world (cf. 5-6).
A RELIGIOUS ACCOUNT
• One of the things that marks this account
as a religious (rather than a strictly
philosophical one) is the claim which
follows: namely, that access to the truth is
restricted. You must be taught it, you
can't just recognize it yourself (16, verses
7-8).
• Death identifies the central teachings as
those within the Brahmanic tradition (The
Vedas).
• Note the similarities with the BA Upanishad.
THE PRESCRIPTION
• The end of chapter 2 and chapter 3 are concerned with
the interpretation of Death's lessons for Naciketas.
• The lessons are ones that should be already familiar to
us: understand that the truth of existence is “unity in
diversity, diversity in unity.”
• The problem is that few recognize this, and are thus led
astray.
• The solution is to come to recognize it, not just
intellectually, but with the whole of our being. Failure
means a return to the cycle of life for another go around
and another opportunity to learn the lesson. Success
means freedom from the cycle.