Niṣkāmakarma and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21394876
AutoresTommi Lehtonen (0000-0002-0286-3059, University of Vaasa, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen60
Número2
Páginas457-471
Fecha de publicación2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSophia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-1527 • E-ISSN: 1873-930X
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11841-020-00780-x
OpenAlexW3043007275
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas19

The Bhagavadgītā , part of the sixth book of the Hindu epic The Mahābhārata , offers a practical approach to mokṣa , or liberation, and freedom from saṃsāra , or the cycle of death and rebirth. According to the approach, known as karmayoga (‘the yoga of action’), salvation results from attention to duty and the recognition of past acts that inform the present and will direct the future. In the Bhagavadgītā , Kṛṣṇa advocates selfless action as the ideal path to realizing the truth about oneself as well as the ultimate reality. Kṛṣṇa proclaims that humans have rights only to actions and not to their results, whether good or bad (2.47). Therefore, humans should not desire any results whatsoever. The prisoner’s dilemma is a fictional story that shows why individuals who seek only their personal benefit meet worse outcomes than those possible by cooperating with others. The dilemma provides an effective, albeit often overlooked, method for studying the Hindu principle of niṣkāmakarma (‘desireless action’) that is arguably the central teaching of the Bhagavadgītā . In the context of the prisoner’s dilemma, a prisoner who wants to uphold niṣkāmakarma may choose one of two decision-making strategies: to be indifferent and leave the decision to chance or to either pursue the common good or the other person’s benefit instead of his or her own. Assuming that followers of niṣkāmakarma can be goal-oriented, the second strategy is more appropriate than the first, as long as one pursues unselfish goals and remains both indifferent and uncommitted to personal benefit

Action (physics) · Context (archaeology) · Dilemma · Duty · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Hinduism · Ideal (ethics) · Law and economics · Political science · Prisoner's dilemma · Sociology · Theology · History · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Social Psychology · War, Ethics, and Justification