AboutMaciej St. Zięba Expertise I can answer questions concerning Eastern (Oriental) philosophies and philosophers (Indian, Tibetan, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese: Hinduist, Buddhist, Confucianist, Taoist and other; alas not Islamic or Jewish) - both in terms of notions and facts (history of their development). I can write in English, French, Esperanto, Polish and Russian, German, Dutch and Norwegian. I can also understand questions in Spanish and Italian.
Experience I have been teaching Indian and Chinese philosophies since 1987 and in 2000 I started a project on Oriental philosophies within the scope of the Universal Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Powszechna Encyklopedia Filozofii) published in Polish by SITA-PL (7 volumes, A-Pan, published 2000-2006, containing ca. 300 entries in Eastern philosophies, written by a team of a dozen of Polish scholars).
Organizations The Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), Poland, History of Philosophy Department
Publications Several publications in Polish; in English: The Origin of the World according to Rigveda (Montreal 1996), Contributions to the History of the Buddhist Classifications of Dharmas: Pancavastuka of Vasumitra (Bulletin, Polish Institute and Library, Montreal 1997)
Education/Credentials philosophy (KUL, Lublin, 1976-81); M.A. in history of Indian philosophy (KUL, 1981); Ph.D. in history of Indian philosophy (KUL, 1989); other studies: Indian and Chinese philosophies (Institut Catholique, Paris, 1985-6); Tibetan language (INALCO, Paris, 1985-6); Chinese language (McGill University, Montreal, 1995-7)
Question How does the Hinduist religion view human nature?
What are Hinduism's government views?
Answer Dear Diane,
There is no such thing as "Hinduism's government". I don'y know what you mean.
as concerning the 1st question:
Let's paraphrase this question and ask:
"How does the Christian religion view human nature?"
Do you think there is one simple answer to this question? I assure you - NOT.
There is no one single simple answer to your question, either.
In general what one can say about human nature in Hindu religion (or Hinduism; but one should not write "Hinduist religion") is that most of their followers accept these notions about man (i.e. human being):
1) Man is a being, and also a living being, like other living beings
2) Man is a sentient being (is conscious and capable of knowing i.e. gaining new knowledge, is self-conscious)
3) Man is free in deciding what he/she wants to do or not to do, what he/she does and does not etc.
4) Man is responsible for his/her own deeds - good and bad - what is good or bad is described by "dharma" (see p. 9)
5) Man "eats" the fruit of his own deeds - which are suffering (for the bad deeds) and pleasure (for good deeds)
(these last 2 points are generally known as the "law of karman")
6) Man is not only what we can see now, but also what he/she was in past and will be in future - there is a material body and a spiritual principle; In fact what constitutes "man" is rather the second one, not the first one
7) Man can realize his obligations - known as 4 purusha-artha's, 4 human ends: - towards himself/herself (1: kama or psycho-physical pleasure, 4: moksha or final individual liberation), and society (the closest social group, entire humanity and the world; 2: artha or welfare, 3: dharma or righteousness).
8) Man's ends No. 1 and 2 deal with using the world for own purpose, end No. 3 deals with adapting oneself to the rules and structures of the world, end No. 4 deals with gainig freedom from the world or over the world.
9) Man is a social being - his social duties are described as "righteousness" (dharma) - which is different according to his birth (jati - including time and place, social class, sex etc) and stage of life (ashrama - being one of four: a child, a family-head, a retired one and a hermit). One of the type of dharma is the obligation of sacrifices (for the sake of the sacrifice itself).
10) Man can gain absolute freedom form the world.
All these theses can be challenged in details by some schools of thought.
Even with the thesis that is most often claimed to be a certainly special Hindu thesis, namely:
- Man is reborn in many (almost "unendless") lives - according to one's own deeds. (see points 4-5-6).
- even with this thesis there are certain schools that do not accept it and claim that human life is single (although this is really a rare position).
The other points, typically said of "Hinduism" in general, but which in fact are very differently understood and discussed in many schools of thought, include discussion of:
- whether human spiritual principle (atman) is identical with the soul (jiva) or not,
- whether it is identical (as to the nature and as to the number) with the Absolute being (brahman) or God (Ishvara) - or not,
- whether the liberation can be obtained by a certain own effort (yoga), like by sacrifices (yajna) or by moral practices (shila) or by ascesis (tapas) or by knowledge (jnana) - or must it be granted by God according the the God's grace (anukarma) - which in turn may or may not be influenced by the devotee's love (bhakti) towards God.
Also questions differ much about what are the obligations -
- whether sensual pleasure is good or bad or neutral,
- whether good deeds are finally good and not e.g. a burden rather than help towards final liberation, etc.
Questions differ much about what the final liberation is - - is it a state of bliss?
- a state of absolute knowledge?
- a state of unconscioussness?
- a state of nothingness?
- a state of identity with God?
- a state od being close to God?
- a state of realization that in fact one was never bonded and was ever free? etc.
- Is liberation accessible to everybody (than the Universe will once become "empty") or are there (sentient, human) beings that will eternally remain reincarnating?
