Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year Ethics and Indian Culture flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Meta-ethics

The branch of philosophy that examines the meaning, nature and justification of moral language and concepts, asking whether moral judgements can be true or only express attitudes.

Categorical imperative

Kant's unconditional moral law: act only on maxims you could will as universal law, and treat humanity always as an end and never merely as a means.

Golden mean

Aristotle's doctrine that moral virtue lies between two vices of excess and deficiency, the right point being fixed by practical wisdom in the particular situation.

Purushartha

The four legitimate aims of human life in Indian thought: dharma, artha, kama and moksha, with desire and wealth to be pursued within the bounds of righteousness.

Ahimsa

Non-violence in thought, word and deed; a cardinal virtue in Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga and Gandhian ethics, understood as abstaining from harm to any living being.

Aparigraha

Non-possession or non-greed, one of the yamas of yoga and a Jain vow, requiring the limitation of wants and refusal to hoard beyond genuine need.

Svadharma

One's own particular duty, determined by one's nature, stage of life and capacity, as taught in the Bhagavad Gita in preference to another's better-performed duty.

Ashrama

The four stages of the classical Hindu life-cycle: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa, each carrying its own distinct set of social and moral obligations.

Joint family

The traditional Indian household in which several generations share residence, property and income, with collective responsibility for dependants, the aged and the young.

Samskara

Life-cycle rites in the Indian tradition marking transitions such as birth, naming, initiation and marriage; traditionally sixteen in number, they transmit values and social identity.

Fraternity

The constitutional value in the Preamble requiring a sense of common brotherhood among all citizens, securing both the dignity of the individual and national unity.

Anekantavada

The Jain doctrine that reality is many-sided and cannot be captured in one absolute assertion; it grounds tolerance and the qualified predication of syadvada.

Four Noble Truths

The Buddha's core teaching: suffering exists, craving causes it, it can cease, and the Eightfold Path of conduct, concentration and wisdom leads to that cessation.

Advaita Vedanta

Shankara's non-dual school holding that brahman is the sole reality and the individual self is not ultimately different from it; the world is explained as maya.

Nishkama karma

Disinterested action taught in the Bhagavad Gita: performing one's duty without attachment to the fruits of the act, which purifies the mind and leads to liberation.

Pramana

A valid means of knowledge in Indian epistemology; Nyaya accepts perception, inference, testimony and comparison, while other schools add or subtract means.

Rasa

The aesthetic relish evoked in a cultivated spectator by a work of art; Bharata's Natyashastra enumerates nine rasas from shringara to shanta.

Abhinaya

Expressive enactment in classical Indian dance and drama, classified as angika (body), vachika (speech), aharya (costume) and sattvika (inner emotional states).

Gopuram

The monumental gateway tower of a South Indian temple, rising above the entrance through the enclosure walls and typical of Dravidian temple architecture.

Tinai

Sangam poetry's classification of landscape and theme into five regions, each linked to a mode of love or separation, from kurinji hills to palai wasteland.

Thirukkural

Thiruvalluvar's Tamil ethical work of 1,330 couplets in three sections on virtue, wealth and love, universal in scope and free of sectarian doctrine.

Alvars and Nayanmars

Tamil Vaishnava and Shaiva poet-saints of the Bhakti movement, whose hymns in Tamil transformed personal devotion into a popular religious and literary tradition.

Satyagraha

Gandhi's method of non-violent resistance based on truth-force, using civil disobedience, non-cooperation and self-suffering rather than violence to oppose injustice.

Sarvodaya

Gandhi's principle of the welfare and upliftment of all, especially the poorest, applied through village self-rule, craft-based economy and voluntary service.

Self-Respect Movement

Periyar's rationalist movement begun in 1925, opposing caste hierarchy, priestcraft and gender subordination, and demanding social equality for non-Brahmin communities.

Anthropocentrism

The view that only human beings have intrinsic moral standing and that nature matters merely as a resource or setting for human purposes.

Sustainable development

Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, balancing economic growth, social equity and ecological limits.

Sacred grove

A patch of forest protected by religious custom and taboo, often dedicated to a deity, which conserves local biodiversity through community sanction in India.

Precautionary principle

The environmental rule that lack of full scientific certainty should not delay measures to prevent serious or irreversible harm to health or the environment.

Article 21

The fundamental right to life and personal liberty, expanded by the Supreme Court to include dignity, privacy, health, clean environment and livelihood.

Habeas corpus

A writ requiring a person detaining another to produce the detainee before a court and justify the detention; a primary safeguard against unlawful imprisonment.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The 1948 United Nations declaration of thirty articles setting out civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, adopted as a common standard for all nations.

Right to Information

The 2005 Indian law giving citizens a statutory right to seek information from public authorities, subject to defined exemptions, as a tool of transparency and accountability.