Myths
What was the name of the Monkey Noble God who is truly devoted to Rama?
Hanuman
What are the three orders of the soul according to the Islamic tradition?
Rational soul
Thoughts
Reflection
Sensitive soul
Mobility
Sensation
Vegetative traits
Vegetative soul
Reproduction
Growth
Describe Atman
atman = soul/self
The individual agent of sacrifice
The only thing permanent, immortal
What is a legal agent in islamic law
All humans of certain qualities are moral agents with moral responsibility: Sound mind, of mature age
All legal agents who are equal in their legal responsibility: Satisfy the condition of moral agency
All legal agents who are equal in their legal responsibility: Muslims, Free, of sound mind, of age
--> then you would have humans judged by different scales of humanity
What is one key difference between chinese cosmology from islamic and indian cosmology?
There is no god in chinese cosmology, while the others have either one or multiple other gods
What is the name of the Angel that challenges God in the Qur'an?
Iblis
How is a person to live well in samsara and what is the other path to take in life?
How to live well in samsara
Artha: wealth, success
Kama: sensual pleasure
dharma: duty, righteousness
How to get out of samsara
Moksa: liberation; to be liberated is to realise human nature; atman
Describe Dharma
Dharma = law = religion = duty = right = authority
Mahabharata: duty (duty of social position too)
How to a life dharmically
Depends on role, socially, caste
How divine essence expressed itself in innate nature, potential
What does Ramayana reveal about society
Dharma is embodied in an ordered society
Order demand hierarchy
Kingship and divinity have a close relationship
What are the two types of divine assistance from god according to Islamic tradition?
1. Tamkin: making humans capable: he gives them their senses, reason, bodily parts, social settings, freedom to act, etc., so that they are enabled to go to the right path
2. Lutf: prophets, causing pain, giving them confidence in their knowledge; enables humans to be moral agents
What are the hexagrams?
A system of signs with which to navigate reality, and understand the world
What are the life stages and social order of humans in indian tradition
Varna – Social position
priest/scholar (brahmanas)
warrior/king (ksatriyas)
cultivator/trader/artisan (vaisyas)
Servant (sudras)
Asrama – Stage of life
Student
Householder
Forest mendicant, “Retiree”
Renuciant
Describe dao
That which goes beyond form is the way (dao)
It encompasses the way as what and how a vital series of events seeking their own transmission
1. Personal cultivation as the way of producing meaningful relations 2. Transmission of cultural legacy from ancestors to progeny
The way or way making germane to the natural world, ethical conduct, and knowledge, speaks to wholeness and unboundedness of vital experience as it unfolds
What are the principles of effective governance?
Most effective way of governance is moral education
Through moral inspiration and social morals, people order themselves; most efficient governance is not to govern
Rule of man instead of rule of law
Human governance means that a ruler should love the people as parents love their children, providing for them, educating them, caring for them
based on the exemplary character of the ruler
What is the Vedic Horse Sacrifice?
It is performed to show overlordship; that the king is uncontested, and people submit to him
A horse is set free to wander for a year
If it goes on someone's property, the king has to fit them until they submit
The king's men follow it, then, after a year, it is sacrificed
What is the main difference between Adam and the angels in the Qur'an?
Adam knows all the names, the sum of the name each angel knows
What are the stages of becoming human in Chinese tradition?
1. Cultivating one’s person (personal growth)
2. Setting the family right
3. Ordering the state
4. Bringing peace to the world
Describe what the rational soul is and its properties/attributes.
Rational soul
Thoughts
Reflection
Vegetative and sensitive traits
rational theoretical soul (concerned with universals)
The rational soul is immaterial; the body is material
Rational soul is particularized at inception by the organic body and needs the body for its developmental journey
it can rule over the rational, practical soul (concerned with what is good and bad and the moral order)
How can one act righteously in both a political, ethical, and philosophical context, according to the Bhagavad?
varnasramadharma: “ duty according to social order and life stage.”
How do Confucians view the foreign sino-distinction?
Confucian and his followers argued for the superiority of the Chinese over others, either on moral or material/technological grounds;
They also argued for the changeability and educability of the human so that non-Chinese could reach the moral and material levels of the Chinese through education
What are three characteristics of the cosmos in Chinese tradition, and what do they all emphasize?
continuity, wholeness, Dynamism
Emphasizes cosmos as in a constant state of being/becoming, with no beginning or end; only continuous transformation and changes
What is the second perfection?
Nature is the first perfection of something tending towards its second perfection or its endpoint
To be human is to actualize the second perfection– the perfect eternal actualization of universal/conceptual knowledge– in a developmental journey by clearing the paths for the first perfection
What is ren and how is it connected to ritual (li)?
Ren (benevolence, humaneness) = consummate conduct in roles and relations, li (ritual propriety)
Humaneness is reached when social norms are internalized to such a degree that they become self-motivation, the second nature; requires self-discipline
Humaness = moral spontaneity; humaness/consummate conduct is achieved when social norms become spontaneous action on the part of individuals
How is Farabi’s perfect city (the polis) ordered and his philosophy around it?
The perfect society is such that human nature can achieve the end of human perfection; The second perfection can be gained in this manner
Society must therefore also have an ideal and perfect order as determined by such perfected humans
The most perfect humans are the rulers: they set down religion which is basically a set of beliefs and rules that lead others to perfect themselves similarly
As societies are ordered perfectly and contain perfected humans, so perfected societies themselves reflect a natural order of the cosmos
In humans, the lowest souls are governed by the higher ones
In society, the less perfected are governed by the more perfected
In the cosmos, the most base and inanimate elements lie lowest, whereas the highest parts are occupied by the intellects (including the active intellect)
How to do a vedic ritual and what is the importance of them?
An agent (yajamana) performs a sacrifice
Calls together ritual specialists
Does the enjoined rituals, using the hymns of praise at the right time and offering the right sacrifices
The gods receive the offerings
The gods grant the yajamanna’s request
The sacrificial action leads to the gods acting, do it correctly, you get karman
Soul - needed to ensure the ritual works, that your ritual actions get you the ritual rewards