Unmasking AIT

[dhu]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Regarding the first issue.<b> Yes, I do think that there is a *fundamental divide* between these two cultures as to the nature of the ethical domain. </b>This forum is not the place to argue for it: in a book I have almost completed, I show what this difference is.<b> Very briefly put: the structure of western ethical thinking is ‘normative’ in nature. </b>(That means to say,<b> it makes use of ethical categories like ‘obligatory’, ‘forbidden’ and ‘permissible’ to evaluate actions. </b>Or that <b>the ‘moral ought’ is central to its talk about morality.) </b>By contrast, the Indian ethics is ‘non-normative’. There is no distinction between the ‘normative’ and the ‘factual’ statements in our culture, whereas it is fundamental to the western intellectual thinking. (For example, the scientific statements are seen to be ‘factual’ whereas the ethical statements are said to be ‘normative’ in nature.) You are right, therefore, in sensing that this divide is the backbone to my argument in the passage you cite. <b>This divide, however, is not a simple ‘postulation’ from my side but one based on arguments and evidence which, as I have already said, are not presented in this article. </b>nature.)link<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->