Ahimsa and Asabiyya

Abstract

Professor Ija Lazari Pawłowska a had high opinion of Gandhi’s philosophy, wrote an interesting book about him, and under his influence recommended renunciation of the use of force in all cultures with respect to all political and social conflicts. She tended to present Gandhi and her own normative conclusions as multifaceted projects or ‘package’ proposals. She found it convincing to promote only such normative views that respected widespread social attitudes, contained a conception of legal order and professed some sort of moral philosophy. In this way moral practicality was combined with ethical absolutism. The author is interested to find out if this ‘package’ approach is consistent with ethical absolutism which Professor Ija Lazari Pawłowska had endorsed. To answer this question he compares ahimsa and asabiyya, or the Hindu ideal of non violence with the Arab conception of supporting one’s own. In his opinion, an impartial comparison of these two normative proposals is possible and it is free of hidden circularity that might arise from a tacit acceptance of the superiority of one of these views. He claims that Professor Ija Lazari Pawłowska used a criterion that might be characterized as ‘maximum of rights and minimum of overpowering’.