Maximizing Dharma: Krsna’s Consequentialism in the Mahabharata

Praxis 3 (1) (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The Mahabharata, an Indian epic poem, describes a legendary war between two sides of a royal family. The epic’s plot involves numerous moral dilemmas that have intrigued and perplexed scholars of Indian literature. Many of these dilemmas revolve around a character named Krsna. Krsna is a divine incarnation and a self-proclaimed upholder of dharma, a system of social and religious duties central to Hindu ethics. Yet, during the war, Krsna repeatedly encourages his allies to use tactics that violate dharma. In this paper, I try to make sense of Krsna’s actions by analyzing them in terms of categories from Western moral philosophy. I show that Krsna seems to embrace an ethical approach called consequentialism, but that his version of consequentialism differs from Western theories of consequentialism by seeing adherence to dharma as an intrinsic good.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Scope of Moral Philosophy (Ethics-1, M02).Shyam Ranganathan - 2016 - In A. Raghuramaraju (ed.), Philosophy, E-Pg Pathshala. Delhi: India, Department of Higher Education (NMEICT).
Dharmarāja and Dhammarāja (II).Przemysław Szczurek - 2021 - Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal 11 (2).
Listening to a Different Voice: Gendering Dharma Through Sita of the Ramayana.Joseph Martin M. Jose - 2023 - In Soraj Hongladarom, Jeremiah Joven Joaquin & Frank J. Hoffman (eds.), Philosophies of Appropriated Religions: Perspectives from Southeast Asia. Springer Nature Singapore. pp. 377-389.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-11-10

Downloads
2,303 (#5,218)

6 months
428 (#3,815)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

The Bhagavadgītā, Sen, and Anderson.J. M. Fritzman - 2015 - Asian Philosophy 25 (4):319-338.
The Bhagavad Gita's Ethical Syncretism.Roopen Majithia - 2015 - Comparative Philosophy 6 (1).

Add more citations

References found in this work

Virtue Ethics.Rosalind Hursthouse & Glen Pettigrove - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Value in ethics and economics.Elizabeth Anderson - 1993 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Perfectionism.Thomas Hurka - 1993 - New York, US: Oxford University Press. Edited by Thomas L. Carson & Paul K. Moser.
Consequentialism.Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

View all 12 references / Add more references