YUDHISHTHIRAS DUTY-The Difficulty of Being Good (Gurcharan
das)Group 7Abhas Garg (14P001)Aditya Menon (14P003)Akhil Agrawal
(14P005)Anup Kumar (14P009)Sayoni Basak (14P044)Sunny Khanna
(14P052)Character Sketch - Yudhishthira Initially has an instictive
sense of duty (I act because I must); believes following Dharma (a
standard of conduct) is its own reward Believes that he must
recover his kingdom but not at the cost of his dharma Does not
believe in Utilitarian Approach; looks upon all beings as ends in
themselves The exile and the decision to go to war transforms him
from a guileless idealist into a pragmatist who recognizes the
limits of absolute goodness His new position exercises temperance
to avoid both ideological extremes - the immorality of Duryodhana
as well as the super-morality of the earlier YudhishthiraCharacter
Sketch - Draupadi Outraged over the issue of unmerited suffering
Questions the rationality behind being good of Yudhishthira
Inclined to believe that only the selfish, powerful and dishonest
would have an edge in life Feels that Yudhishthira should abandon
Ethical Idealism (following dharma Irrevocably) and follow
Reciprocal Altruism (tit-for-tat strategy)
Character Sketch - Bhima Like Draupadi, Bhima also wants
Yudhishthira to rise and fight the Kauravas Says that Kama
(Pleasure), Artha (Material well-being) & Dharma
(Righteousness) are the three aims to a flourishing life Feels that
by choosing not to fight, Yudhishthira neglects the aims of Kama
& Artha at the expense of following Dharma Ethical Concepts
Western thinkers appealed to natural law human beings have inside
their nature a law or a guide to what is right or wrong. John Locke
elaborated based on natural rights human beings had certain rights
when they started out in a state of nature and these rights
continued even when that state of nature was over and they became
the citizens of a civil society. Indirect Utilitarianism combines
the approach that judges the goodness of an act by looking at its
consequences and the approach that looks at the intentions behind
the act. Virtue Ethics connects being good with character and
fulfilling the purpose of human life.Ethical Concepts Reciprocal
Altruism Adopt a friendly face to the world but do not allow
yourself to be exploited. (Prisoners Dilemma) Naturalistic Fallacy
Risk in deriving moral values from natures workings i.e. an
unwarranted inference from what is to what ought to be. Life is not
a tooth-and-claw struggle. Nicomachean Ethics a persons character
is not something that one is born with; constantly evolving through
repeated actions; to become virtuous requires repeating virtuous
actions
Learnings Being Good is not a one-off event but a continuing
attitude to life and other human beings Dharma (Righteousness) can
be learned through the journey of self-discovery and overcoming
self deception Utilitarianism theory is a proponent of
consequentialism which ignores fairness in the distribution of
goods One must strive to build character through repeating virtuous
actions One should strive to attain the values of Prudence and
Temperance
