Abstract

A Student of ethics cannot but be struck by some fundamental difference of outlook in the ethics of the East and the West. This has a particular bearing on the problem of the relation of the individual to society. In practice this has given rise to a question of supreme importance to every thinking man: is an individual completely subservient to society, or is society completely subservient to the demands of individuality? I.e., is the moksha of any individual impossible till all the needs of society have been completely satisfied, or is an individual free to use or not to use society as a field for his own spiritual expansion? There is no doubt a fundamental discrepancy in these outlooks as thus conceived, and the problem is : can we reconcile them?