Zoroastrian Ethics by MA Buch

The Gnekwad Stu<Uc'^ in Rdi/tuii and Plcilu-^oph i/ : /I ZOKOASTRIAN ETHICS IVintod at the Mirfsion Press, Siirat l.y n. K. 8colt, and imblislieil l»y A. G. Wi(l;.'ery the Collej,'e, Baroda. I. V. 1919. ZOROASTHIAN ETHICS By MAGAXLAL A. BUCH, M. A. Fellow of the Seminar for the Comparative Stn<ly of IJelifjioiiP, Barotla, With an Infrnrhicfion hv ALBAN n. WrDGERY, ^f. A. Professor of Philosophy and of the Comparative Study of PiPlii^doiis, Baroda. B A K D A 515604 P n E F A C E The present small volume was undertaken as one subject of study as Fellow in the Seminar for the Comparative Study of Religions established in the College, Baroda, by His Highness the Maharaja Sayaji Eao Gaekwad, K C. S. I. etc. The subject was suggested by Professor Widgery who also guided the author in the plan and in the general working out of the theme. It is his hope that companion volumes on the ethical ideas associated with other religions will shortly be undertaken. Such ethical studies form an important part of the aim which His Highness had in view in establishing the Seminar. The chapter which treats of the religious conceptions is less elaborate than it might well have been, because Dr. Dhalla's masterly volume on Zomasfrirm Theolof/y^ New York, 1914, cannot be dispens- ed with by any genuine student of Zoroastrian- ism, and all important details may be learned from it. It only remains to thank I'rotessor Widgcrv lor writinf,' a L;enoral introduotion and for his continued help thronghont tho process of the work. ma(;am.ai. a. imcii n CONTENTS hit I'uduct Lull ••• ... ••• ••• 1 Blblluf/raj'hi./ and Ahbrfji'latiuiiS'" ••• 17 PART [ I, T he Available Z u r o a s t r i a Literature ••• ••• ••• 24 11. The H i s t o r i e a 1 a n d 8 o e i a 1 Conditions • • • • • • • • • 30 III. Psychological Conceptions ... 41 PAKT II IV. The General Moral Attitude •«• 5-5 V. The Value of Life : Industry and Indolence ••• .•• ... 60 VI. Truthfulness and Deceit: Purity and Impurity '.• •" ... cSO MI. The Ethics of Sex Relations ... Ill VIll. Benevolence : other Vices and Virtues ••• ... ... loi^ IX. The Ethical in Legal Pieferences in Zoroastrian Literature ... 167 X. Theological and Metaphysical 171) Conceptions Lidej: I'jy INTRODUCTION The age in which we live is distinguished in many ways by its realism. In the realm of " the practical " there is a wide- spread impatience amongst the educated against the dominance of traditional ideas tending to limit the scope of enjoyment of the good or to sacrifice concrete experience for the sake of abstractions. In the realm of thought itself there has been and is a decided revolt against the over emphasis of abstract universal principles as distinct from actual particulars with their individual characteristics. This attitude is more or less common in relation to all branches of thought : its significance for ethics is especially important. Men ask that the reflections of moral philosophers shall have some real and important bearing on the problem of what the moral life should contain and how it should be lived. Ethics is required to have a definite and intimate relation with the individual details of morality and not to remain in the discussion of the purely formal. From the spirit of Kant ethics now turns again to the spirit of Aristotle. 2 /• ' :;/oii/>f*jii'iii4^;PTHics Though the view that the good cannot be defined has incidentally been implied at various times in the history of moral philosophy, it is only within recent years that its true import has begun to be realised. In the first place it involves that moral experience is immediate, that the knowledge included in any science of ethics, though it may be knowledge by descrip- tion, is dependent upon knowledge by direct acquaintance. Moral good is known in some form of intuition, and is intelligible only in terms of itself. In the second place it has become more and more evident that all attempts to explain moral good in a general manner,, e.g. as duty, or as that which brings the greatest amount of pleasure, or as the way of deliverance, or as self-realisation, and so on, are of only secondary value and importance. The chief result of these modern tendencies with relation to the science of ethics is to make it much more empirical. In the ethics of the past there has been much keen discussion of abstract principles and ultimate problems^ but too often this discussion has had little relation to the ethical facts of actual life. The attempt to bring about a closer relation has INTJfiqDUGTrOX s involved a superimposition of the principles upon actual conduct as it were from without. In consequence the conceptions of the moral ideal have almost all lacked content, have, in fact, been conspicuous by their poverty. As Spinoza in order to give an account of substance had to pass almost immediately to the attributes of thought and extension and then in order to explain these had to pass on to modes, thus eventually taking in the immediate experiences of actual life, so ethical writers in order to bring their conceptions into touch with facts have been forced back to particular experiences. From these only can we begin if we wish for an understanding of what the moral life includes in detail. In other words, the science of ethics must be regarded as a natural science concerned with the data of moral life. By '* Ethics" as a science we understand the effort to come to a complete and systematic comprehension of the moral life, in a manner similar to that in which, for example, the science of botany is concerned with the comprehension of all the forms of plant-life and the relations between these forms. The first task, therefore, is a survev of the facts of ) ;^(HiOX.S.'FKIAiN.'>;TKICS morality. The facts with which it is necessary to beirin in order to form a science of ethics are moral judgments. These judgments are to be grouped as clearly as possible into classes and the relationship between the facts and the classes surveyed with the hope of finding general principles and forming a whole as coherent and complete as possible. Ethics miirht be divided as follows in a manner similar to a division elsewhere adopted for the study of Theology. ' i<:thics. \. KMPllUCAL ETHICS. II. MORAL PHILOSOPHY. a. The i)sycliological facts a. Critical { Examination of tlie Moral Life. of empirical data }). riie History of floral b. Constructive ( Forma- Systems. tion of ideal system). c. The Comjiarative Study : of Moral Systems. In the realm of ethics as in any other branch of knowledge there seems no adequate ground for any claim to tnc actual possession of a complete coherent system of moral goods. Here as elsewhere humanity is concerned with developing knowledge. The course of the development will be an important consider- ation for understanding the system. * The Comparative Study of Religions. Raroda, 1919 p. 10. IJsTRODUCTION & Brief reflection on this view of the science of ethics will lead to the recognition that it implies that the human mind possesses a capacity for making moral judgments. Equal- ly important is the necessity of acknowledging the historical development of ethical knowledge. The ultimate problem of the relation between these two is similar to that involved in all knowledge : the recognition of reason as in some manner absolute and not merely relative must be united with the acceptance of a theory of evolution of knowledge. It appears alike impossible to deny either the power of reason or the evolution of knowledge. The only way in which they may be united is to regard the evolution or development of knowledge as dependent on the increasing degree with which reason comes into relation with its subject matter in any particular branch of experience. This may be either by a closer contact with details or by attention to new parts of experience. A survey of the actual course of history suggests that the advance of ethical as of other knowledge is chiefly due to the accumulation of a larcre number of small contributions made ZOROASTKIAN ETHICS by a large number of individual workers. Nevertheless, in every sphere, and certainly not least in morality, there are individuals with a remarkable degree of 'insight" or special capacity. To them are due radical changes and great advances, even though these have usually been prepared for by the etibrts of the many. It is not in contradiction with the belief in the evolution of knowledge that some such individuals have attained an intuition or immediate acquaintance with one or more aspects of the good with a clearness which others even after them have never independent- ly reached. Obviously, the majority of men, even the majority of enlightened men, of to-day, have not the degree of philosophical capacity and knowledge possessed by Plato and Aristotle. But we do not, in consequence, deny the reality of any evolution of knowledge. For part of this evolution is that of bringing more men to the appreciation of the knowledge which profound earlier minds attained, and to its detailed application. The general practice of men in ordinary life accords with this contention : for when, apart froni pu1>lic o[)inion, they look for knowledge INTRODUCTION of the requirements of morality, they turn to the ofreat moral teachers of the race. In the attempt to form a science of ethics a similar method must be in part adopted.

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