Yoga Ethics: Part 1/3 Yoga Ethics and Western Impositions Yogaphilosophy.Com What We Will Learn About…

Yoga Ethics: Part 1/3 Yoga Ethics and Western Impositions yogaphilosophy.com What we will learn about…

• Part 1: Yoga Ethics and Western Impositions. • Part 2: Yoga Ethics and South Asian Alternatives. • Part 3: Yoga Ethics and Activism (Historical Influence and Social Change). What I do

• Day job: philosophy professor. Range of topics: philosophy of language, ethics, political philosophy, South Asian philosophy. • Expert (on these topics), not an authority. -- an authority is someone who has the power to enforce an opinion (e.g. a police officer). -- an expert has skill and experience in sorting through large amounts of data, with logic, to arrive at conclusions about the data set. -- experts expect to be held according to the standards they work with. Before I started my work…

• Dominant view in the academy was that South Asian thinkers did not think about moral and political issues. • Dominant view was, and still is, that it’s religious, spiritual, with a dash of mysticism. Some Academic Accomplishment

• I showed that the common view that ethical reflection is absent from South Asian philosophy is false • … that the main topic that South Asian philosophers were interested in was ethics… • And that the presentation of BIPOC philosophy as religion or spirituality is colonialism and the flip side of marginalizing its BIPOC anti-colonial contributions to moral philosophy. • Yoga/Bhakti is a basic ethical theory. My Research Journey Start

• Undergraduate Degree in Philosophy: (1) South Asian tradition (disagreements between Buddhists, Jains, and the Gītā, to name a few) made sense in Moral Philosophy classes, and no sense in (2) Philosophy of Religion. • Ethics classes were weirdly anthropocentric. • South Asian Erasure. MA in Philosophy and SAS

• My MA in Philosophy was frustrating: lots of irrational appeal to intuitions, but the intuitions were never mine (and usually those of White folks): more erasure. • I undertook a 2 year MA in SAS (which turned into 5 years), where things were even worse (for reliance on Eurocentric intuitions) • Here, I encountered the myth… Common View of Indologists

• “… except some cursory comments and some insightful observations, the professional philosophers of India have very seldom discussed what we call “moral philosophy” today.” (Matilal 1989, 5)

Matilal, Bimal Krishna. 1989. 'Moral Dilemmas: Insights from the Indian Epics.' In Moral Dilemmas in the Mahābhārata, edited by Bimal Krishna Matilal, 1-19. Shimla; Delhi: Indian Institute of Advanced Study in association with Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi. Corollary: “Dharma” has many meanings (Disappearance of Indian Ethics)

• We cannot reduce the meanings of DHARMA to one general principle; nor is there one single translation which would cover all its usages. (Halbfass 1988: 333)

• “Dharma” is one of those Sanskrit words that defy all attempts at an exact rendering in English or any other tongue. (Kane 1990: vol.1 p.1)

• DHARMA is a concept difficult to define because it disowns or transcends distinctions that seem essential to us, and because it is based upon beliefs that are ... strange to us …. (Lingat 1973: 3)

• It is difficult to define DHARMA in terms of Western thought ... (Buitenen 1957: 36)

• “Dharma” is used in so many senses that it eludes definition. It stands for nature, intrinsic quality, civil and moral law, justice, virtue, merit, duty and morality. (Rangaswami Aiyangar 1952: 63)

10 min Culmination of my MA

• The error in the literature was a result of everyone deciding that “dharma” could only mean what they (the commentator) would have said in the same context. • In other words, Indologists replaced South Asian claims about dharma with what they believe is the appropriate thing to say in that case: this multiplied the meanings of ‘dharma’ in proportion to everything they would have said when a SAP used the term “dharma.” • Indologists interpreted South Asian philosophy • My Thesis in SAS published through the Indology publisher Motilal Banarsidass~~There is a term in SAP that they used to debate moral disagreements: dharma. • Not Interpreted: every use of the term “dharma” is ethical. PhD Question (Philosophy)

• How do we translate philosophy properly so we avoid these kinds of errors that we see in Indology? • The challenge is coming to terms with understanding when you don’t share anything in the way of outlook or cultural assumptions. Moving On to my PhD

(1)When pushed with cases of the unfamiliar, recommend interpretation (2)Prioritized the study of language over philosophy Moving On to my PhD

(1)Recommend interpretation (2)Prioritized the study of language over philosophy Moving On to my PhD

(1)Recommend interpretation (2)Prioritized the study of language over philosophy The West and LAT

• Linguistic Account of Thought (LAT): Thought is the Meaning of What One Says. Every thought has to be explained in terms of what you would say. • → Interpretation. • Goes back to Greek idea of Logos: one word for thought, reason and language. • Orthodox Indology is just this tradition trying to colonize South Asia. The West and its Politics

• LAT gives rise to: – Ethics is about social conventions, – Ethics is anthropocentric and communitarian, and – Ethics has a lot to do with nationalism. The West: Outcomes

• Alien traditions interpreted by the West will make no sense in so far as they drift from Western commitments, and yet seem firmly grounded in historical practice. • Roman idea of religio as apposed to superstitione comes to define these extra- Western traditions. The West: Outcomes

• Judaism • Christianity • Islam • Zoroastrianism • Hinduism • Buddhism • Religious Identity is created by Western interpretation. • Greek ideas, such as mythology, are turned into literature and treated as part of ‘secular’ culture. Not so Unusual Case of Hinduism

• “Hindu” is Persian, not Indian, and is a geographic term (Sindu, India). • British decided they needed a word for all indigenous South Asian religion. • They use “Hindu” for that. • “Hindu” is like Fruit Salad: a category defined as a collection, not in terms of its members. • I show, pre-colonial, coextensive with the disagreements of philosophy. • Post-colonial is married with nationalism (also Western) in the creation of Westernized or colonized forms of Indic self-understanding. Secularism

• Secularism 1: Disagreements of Philosophy (South Asian) • Secularism 2: The West, and everything else is religion, and for the same reason, not moral philosophy. West and BIPOC ethics

• If it exists, it has to agree with something steeped in the Western tradition—for the West to recognize this. There Is An Alternative •Instead of explanations in terms of belief (interpretation) we can explicate reasons for conclusion using logic.

20 min Logic Crash Course: Validity

(1) The Moon is a squash. (2) Squashes grow on trees. Therefore: The Moon grows on a tree. VALID though all false ~~~~ (1) J. Biden is POTUS in 2021. (2) J. Trudeau is PM of Canada in 2021. Therefore, Shyam Ranganathan is your presenter. INVALID though all true Why logic is key

• It helps us understand by getting over our ego. • Interpretation, colonialism, is ‘understanding’ by way of the ego of the coloniser. Explication

• Use logic to render explicit reasons in perspective for their conclusions about a controversial topic, like ‘dharma.’ • Understand the concept of DHARMA in terms of the disagreement across theories. • We learn that the concept of DHARMA is the concept of THE RIGHT OR THE GOOD. Four Ethical/Dharma Theories

• Virtue Theory: the good —virtue or strength— produces right action. • Consequentialism: the good (end) justifies the right (means). • Deontology: the right (reason) justifies the good (action or omission). • Bhakti/Yoga: the right action produces the good. Origins of the Contrast: Yoga Sūtra I.2-4 yogaś-citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpevasthānam (Explication) vṛtti-sārūpyam-itaratra (Interpretation)

• Yoga is about influencing and controlling what we contemplate to make room for our independence. • Otherwise you’re just identifying with what you contemplate. Interpretation=Saṃskāra-s galore

• saṃskāra = an attitude towards an experience that is employed as an interpretation. By inspecting them, we can discover our past. (III.18) • Unless we practice yoga, this goes on and on. • In a Westernized world what we experience are the ethical decisions informed by common theories of the West. • These are then used to interpret Yoga ethics. Yoga and the West

• Virtue Theory: the good —virtue or strength— produces right action. Yoga • Consequentialism: the Appropriation good (end) justifies the right (means). Via • Deontology: the right Interpretation (reason) justifies the good (action or omission). Yoga and the West

• Priority given to ancient Western ethics: Virtue Ethics (Plato and Aristotle). Yoga • Plato and Aristotle held: Appropriation (a) your virtues and Via abilities define you, (b) caste is real, and hence (c) Interpretation some people are leaders while others are followers. Western Saṃskāra → Reification of Plato •In the Republic, Plato argues that learning has to operate within a community, of this sort, organized by ‘philosopher king’ who has the appropriate virtues that others lack, namely logos. •It is within the context of a community led by this leader that we come to understand who we are. •The leader is qualified as they understand what our words mean. •Community runs by excluding outsiders who aren’t part of the program. Western Saṃskāra → Reification of Aristotle •In the Politics and elsewhere, Aristotle argues that the nature aims at the good, so the natural is the good, and in the Ethics we learn that in order to understand proper choice we need an appropriate social upbringing. •Some people are naturally born slaves, and they need to be led by enlightened individuals with the appropriate experience and reasoning (logos) powers.

30 min Western “Yoga” And Appropriation

• Applies guiding ideas of early Western theorizing to yoga practical guidance: – leader-follower model (vs. sva-svāmi), – community and fitting in to the community as a basic category of explanation (vs. kāivalya), – ableism (vs. Īśvara praṇidhāna), and – Anthropocentrism (vs. anti-asmitā) Abuse by Power

• The West → As LAT→ interpretation • Interpretation, explanation by opinion, is the method of authoritarianism, not expertise (which requires logic). • ‘Teachers’ in this context are not experts, but defined by their social power to enforce opinions. • It allows a sphere of impunity for leaders whose interpretation is the norm. • Students stick with teachers because they share interpretations. Weird Racism

• This variety of pedagogy is defined as what the ‘guru’ dispenses. • (Guru is just the South Asian word for ‘teacher.’) Conventional vs. Ultimate Truth

• A common theme among SA philosophers – especially those interested in Yoga – is a distinction between conventional and ultimate truth. • The West attempts to pass off (its) conventional truth as though it’s the ultimate. • Anyone trying to pass off South Asian cultural competence as deep insight or fact of yoga is doing the same.

My paper on this: “Idealism and the Indian Tradition” Confirmation Bias

• Western approaches to yoga seem to be based on the evidence of South Asia and Yoga, because • Interpretation only explains in terms of what is believed. • And, you can likely find a South Asian out of 1 Billion, who will give you what you want, for the right price. My paper on this: “Idealism and the Indian Tradition”