Sunday, May 27, 2007

Castes and constellations

tusarnmohapatra Says: May 27th, 2007 at 4:59 am [Plato saw people as controlled by mind, will and appetite.] [Plato argues that the human soul has three parts: an intellective (rational) part, a spirited part (having to do with emotion and will), and an appetitive part (having to do with drives and basic impulses).]
Can this be a key to understand the cause of what you have called “constellations" or, by extension, the phenomenon of “castes” prevailing in India?
tusarnmohapatra Says: May 27th, 2007 at 5:39 am [The philosophers and the warriors are thus the “Guardians” of Plato’s ideal state. This does not seem like a familiar sort of definition for justice, but the result, Plato says, is that each interest is satisfied to the proper extent, or, in society, everyone has what is theirs. The philosophers have the knowledge they want; the warriors have the honors they want; and the commoners have the goods and pleasures they want, in the proper moderation maintained by the philosophers and warriors. The root of all trouble, as far as Plato is concerned, is always unlimited desire.]
The caste system in India, too, operates more or less on a similar taxonomy: knowledge, power, capital, and labour.

tusarnmohapatra Says: May 27th, 2007 at 6:26 am The caste syndrome is not confined to India alone and should be seen as prevailing everywhere in many disguised forms, as Bob has blogged: [Sunday, December 03, 2006 Know Your Caste]

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