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Individuality and Community: the Perspectives of Advaita

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Individuality and Community: the Perspectives of Advaita View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY: THE PERSPECTIVES OF CLASSICAL INDIAN AND AFRICAN PHILOSOPHIES ILUYOMADE RAPHAEL FUNWA (B.A (Hons) OSUA (M.A.) UNILAG A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2007 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I wish to extend my gratitude to the Lord whose grace enables me to finish this dissertation. I thank my supervisor, Associate Professor Saranindranath Tagore whose dedication has made this work possible. In addition, I owe a debt of gratitude to Associate Professor Cecilia Lim Teck Neo. I appreciate deeply the contributions of Mr Ayodele-Oja Olalekan Rafiu, Mr Kim Hak Ze, Mr Sun Wei, Mr Gunardi Endro, Ong Bendick, Phan Shiaw Hwa Jason and my other colleagues at the National University of Singapore. The moral support of Professor Soye Bandele, Mr Folorunsho Ishola Elutilo, Dr. Paul Zakowich, Ms Fiona Zakowich, Ms Elizabetta Franzoso, Mr Leonardo Talpo, Ms Ruth Sok Nhep, Ms Siew Kheng, Mr Daniel Selvaretnam, Ms Suseela Selvaretnam and others is deeply appreciated. I am grateful for the moral support of my mother Ms Comfort Morenike Iluyomade and Mr Adeyeye Ezekiel Adeniyi. Finally, I thank my wife Kathe Iluyomade and my children, Gift Ayomide Iluyomade and Fiona Oluwaseyi Iluyomade, for their invaluable support throughout the period of this program. I sincerely thank Ms Devi Asokan and all the administrative staff of the department of philosophy. I do not have enough words to show my appreciation to you all, but your support will forever remain in my good memory. I wish, but for space, to identify each one by name. 2 CONTENTS PREFACE 5 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTORY MATTERS 9 CHAPTER TWO: A CRITICAL EXPOSITION OF ADVAITA VENDANTA PHILOSOPHY I: THE WORLD IN ADVAITA VEDANTA 32 II: MORALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY 64 III: DUALITY AND IGNORANCE 96 CHAPTER THREE: A CRITICAL EXPOSITION OF YORUBA PHILOSOPHY I: THE WORLD IN YORUBA NARRATIVES 127 II: MORALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY 160 III: DUALITY AND IGNORANCE 189 CHAPTER FOUR: CONTEXTUALIZING ADVAITA AND YORUBA CONSTRUCTIONS OF IDENTITY 215 BIBLIOGRAPHY 264 3 SUMMARY In this thesis, I develop a middle position, from Advaita and Yoruba philosophies, that avoids the logical conclusions derived from the binary representations of the individual as a personal self with ontologically prior marks of personhood and the culturally or collectivist construction of the individual. The analysis of the self in Advaita philosophy springs from the Advaita’s main proposition that Brahman is the basis of individuality and community. I argue that this presupposition does not discourage the thriving of the person’s distinctive nature. Consequently, I reflect on the moral implication of Advaita notion of identity. Finally, I reflect on the problem of alterity that may ensue from Advaita’s construction of identity. The notion of identity in Yoruba philosophy is developed on the belief that Emi is the essence of individuality. I discuss the implications of Emi as the basis of individuality and community alongside the criticism that Emi prohibits the development of the person’s distinctive nature. Among others, I reason that the idea gives the individual the liberty of self choice. This is contrary to the position that argues that community good determines identity in African philosophy. Again, I examine the moral implication of Yoruba construction of identity. Finally, I consider how Yoruba philosophy addresses the problem of alterity in relation to identity. 4 INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNITY: THE PERSPECTIVES OF CLASSICAL INDIAN AND AFRICAN PHILOSOPHIES PREFACE This study is an exercise in comparative philosophy. The discussion will revolve around Advaita and Yoruba views of individuality in relation to community. This subject matter has been close to my heart for many years. I grew up in an African culture where community plays a vital role in the construction of identity. I have firsthand experience of the two constructs of the self that I will like to call the social and independent constructs. I learned through my background that both aspects of the self are crucial and that they ought to be developed in a balanced manner within social and political philosophy. My fundamental concern is to reflect on how identity is expressed in these two philosophies in relation to community. Over the years I have reflected on these problems from three independent philosophical sources: the western tradition, the Advaita sources of India and Yoruba philosophy. The western liberal and communitarian philosophers hold diverse positions regarding the source of identity. On the one hand, we have the liberal position which maintains that identity is formed through rational free choice and on the other hand is the communitarians who depict identity as something that is derived from community life. I do not intend to dabble into this interesting debate. However, I will highlight, in the last chapter, the key issues that surround the liberal-communitarian constructions of identity. This will be a useful hint for those who will like to conduct some research between the western views of identity and community and the philosophical traditions that I am discussing here. By discussing ideas from Indian philosophy: Advaita Vedanta and African philosophy, especially the Yoruba tradition, I hope to generate a middle 5 position regarding the issue of identity and community. This position will respond largely to the traditional accounts of Indian and Yoruba constructions of individuality. Though Yoruba and Advaita endorse radically different metaphysical positions, I will argue that they reach similar conclusions concerning the nature of identity. Thus, this work is an exercise in comparative philosophy and in the constructive social dimension of political philosophy. The first chapter will introduce the reader to the key conceptual problems that are of concern to me in this work. The problems that are associated with identity constructs in Indian and African thoughts will be outlined here. More importantly, I will discuss why some commentators are of the opinion that the virtues that delineate genuine identity are devalued in India and Africa. Three issues which are central in the study are stated in this chapter. The first issue involves the source of identity. Subsequent chapters will show whether the Indian and Yoruba philosophical traditions hold that identity is purely given or chosen. The second problem reflects on the congruence of morality and individuality in Yoruba philosophy. Finally, I will be concerned with the notion of self choice and toleration. Chapter two will be divided into three sections. The first section will discuss the Advaita notion of identity in relation to community. I will investigate Advaita’s main presupposition that Brahman is the basis of individuality. I will show how this assumption encourages the thriving of our distinctive nature. What does the idea of Brahman as the source of identity imply? Does it suggest that individuality is antecedent to community or submerged within its worldviews? These are some of the questions that will attract our attention. Furthermore, I will examine the view of Brahman as the basis of 6 community. Can it be said that this idea provides a basis for co-operative association where the development of the person’s free and equal nature are uninhibited? Finally, I will examine how Advaita construes the formation of identity. Section two will dwell on the moral implications of the Advaita conception of identity. Here, I will focus on the extent to which the moral identity of the person is construed from the standpoint of community meanings and whether this gives the individual genuine satisfaction. Section three will dwell on the philosophical problem of alterity. Working on the Advaita conception of avidya (ignorance) and duality, I will attempt to develop an account of how the Advaita person would relate to the differences that are associated with others. Chapter three will develop the Yoruba account of individuality and community in three sections. The first section will reflect on the idea of Emi as the essence of individuality. Against the criticisms that Emi prohibits the development of the person’s distinctive nature, this section will draw the implications of Emi as the basis of individuality and community. Does this idea give the individual the liberty of self choice? How can a philosophy which maintains that the community has its basis on Emi support the development of the person’s distinctive nature? A critical reflection on the above questions will throw some light on the error of those theories which argue that community meanings determine moral identity in African (Yoruba) philosophy. I will argue that though Yoruba philosophy holds that identity is derived as the person participates in the social space of the community, this does not hinder the person from pursuing personal goals. Section two will explore Yoruba conception of moral identity from a critical evaluation of the concept of eniyan (individual). The analysis of eniyan will show what the idea of the individual as a subject amounts to in Yoruba philosophy. 7 How this philosophy harmoniously explores the person’s independent and dependent nature will be highlighted in this section. Section three will address the philosophical problems of alterity and identity as entailed in Yoruba philosophy. The key concepts that will be analyzed in order to arrive at this end are aimo (ignorance) and duality. The final chapter will discuss the findings in Advaita and Yoruba in a comparative manner. I will highlight, in this chapter, the key points that underlie the western liberal and communitarian debate about identity. In both chapters two and three I will rely on the basic categories of thought in the Advaita and Yoruba philosophies to interpretively disclose their philosophical stand on the issues of individuality and community.
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