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    Yogic practices such as meditation, devotional practices,... — Carmelics
    Home/Virtue Ethics
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    Yogic practices such as meditation, devotional practices, ascetic austerities, and ethical development serve as indirect means to liberation.

    Virtue Ethics
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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Śaṅkara accepts the secondary importance of yogic practices involving meditation, devotion, asceticism, moral psychology, and ethical virtue.
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    • 2.Practices that are not direct means to liberation may still function as indirect means.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.For Śaṅkara, liberation (mokṣa) is the recognition of already-existing identity with Brahman, not something produced by practice.
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    • 2.Any practice that functions as a 'means' to liberation falsely presupposes that liberation is an effect to be causally produced.
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    • 3.Classifying yogic practices as 'indirect means' still embeds them in an avidyā-driven teleological framework incompatible with Advaita's own metaphysics.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Rāmānuja argues that devotional practice (bhakti) is not merely preparatory but constitutes the direct and sufficient path to liberation in its own right.
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    • 2.If bhakti and ethical cultivation are direct means within Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śaṅkara's demotion of them to 'indirect means' reflects a sectarian metaphysical commitment, not a neutral phenomenology of practice.
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    • 3.Demoting devotional and ethical practices to indirect status systematically privileges jñāna in a way that marginalizes traditions for whom devotion is epistemically and soteriologically primary.
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    Virtue Ethics

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    Related

    Any practice that functions as a 'means' to liberation falsely presupposes that ...Classifying yogic practices as 'indirect means' still embeds them in an avidyā-d...Demoting devotional and ethical practices to indirect status systematically priv...For Śaṅkara, liberation (mokṣa) is the recognition of already-existing identity ...
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    If bhakti and ethical cultivation are direct means within Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śaṅkara...Practices that are not direct means to liberation may still function as indirect...Rāmānuja argues that devotional practice (bhakti) is not merely preparatory but ...Śaṅkara accepts the secondary importance of yogic practices involving meditation...

    Similar

    Śaṅkara accepts the secondary importance of yogic practices involving ...75%The sincere desire for liberation is required.74%Socrates promoted soul-purification as a philosophical practice73%Perfecting practices such as control of the mind and senses is require...71%

    Source

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    SEP: shankara
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    On the other hand, Śaṅkara accepts the secondary importance of yogic practices that involve a variety of meditation methods, devotional practices, ascetic austerities, moral psychology, and the development of ethical virtues and action ethics (see Sundaresan 2003 on Yoga in Śaṅkara’s method). They may function as indirect means to liberation. Śaṅkara’s ambivalence towards action is not a contradiction. He recognizes a voluntary element in any knowledge to some degree. One must create the proper
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit