Ethics in Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Abstract

Besides the cultural matrix and religious patrimony of India, the contemporary Indian thinkers were very much influenced by empiricistic, utilitarian, agnostic, humanistic and analytic ethics in the West, especially of the thoughts of John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Herbert Spencer, Tolstoy and Wittgenstein. These Western-oriented ideas served to generate a secular and rational ethics and stimulated social and religious movements. Among those who deserve our special mention for their original contributions to ethical thinking are Swami Vivekanada, Mahatma Gandhi, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Amartya Sen (currently at Harvard).