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An Analysis of Consequentialism and Deontology in the Normative Ethics of the Bhagavadgītā

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Abstract

This paper identifies the different normative ethical arguments stated and suggested by Arjuna and Krishna in the Gītā, analyzes those arguments, examines the interrelations between those arguments, and demonstrates that, contrary to a common view, both Arjuna and Krishna advance ethical theories of a broad consequentialist nature. It is shown that Krishna’s ethical theory, in particular, is a distinctive kind of rule-consequentialism that takes as intrinsically valuable the twin consequences of mokṣa and lokasaṃgraha. It is also argued that Krishna’s teachings in the Gītā gain in depth, coherence, and critical relevance what they lose in simplicity when the ethical theory underlying those teachings is understood as a consequentialism of this kind rather than as a deontology.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Baruch College, CUNY, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Sandeep Sreekumar

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Sreekumar, S. An Analysis of Consequentialism and Deontology in the Normative Ethics of the Bhagavadgītā . J Indian Philos 40, 277–315 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-012-9154-3

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