Publisher's Synopsis
INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethical issues are relevant only in human domain. Unlike non-human behaviour, human behaviour is tempered by purpose or goal and the conscious 'means' to achieve the goal. The sense of 'right' and 'wrong', 'ought' and 'ought not' are relevant both with regard to the 'goal' and the 'means'. Ethics as a study of human behaviour, examines the nature of duties and obligations of man in relation to others, where the other members could be family, members of community or the society at large. The core issue is, whether man does have any ethical obligation for the 'Environment' which is normally construed as inanimate. Needless to say that the interaction between man and environment is too intimate to need any emphasis. The physiognomy of man, the accent and intonation of language, his food habits depend upon the geo-climatic conditions, topography and the environment at large, in which man lives. The interdependence of man and nature can hardly be over emphasised. It has been rightly observed that man is more dependent on the environment consisting of other living counterparts animals, birds, natural vegetation, rivers, mountains than the latter on man. The issue is: whether and the extent to which man has any moral obligation for the environment is largely dependent on the 'world view' or the vision of man about the reality around and his relationship with the reality in general and environment, in particular. Ethical paradigms are parasitic on the world views. In other words, it is the 'world view' which lends, rationale to the value-systems. Indian metaphysics looks upon 'environment' not in isolation in so far as it construes the whole reality, with the diverse creations, animate and inanimate, mobile and immobile, as integral parts of one family. It considers every 'creation' as an expression of one singular substance. In this framework, the difference among things and.
