• DOI:10.1080/0969725032000154359
• Corpus ID: 143842799

Non-violence and the other A composite theory of multiplism, heterology and heteronomy drawn from jainism and gandhi

@article{RamPrasad2003NonviolenceAT,
  title={Non-violence and the other A composite theory of multiplism, heterology and heteronomy drawn from jainism and gandhi},
  author={Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad},
  journal={Angelaki},
  year={2003},
  volume={8},
  pages={22 - 3}
}

• C. Ram-Prasad
• Published 1 December 2003
• Art
• Angelaki

This paper 1 works through a largely intuitive notion of Otherness, an abstract understanding of violence and the moral response of non-violence drawn from the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi, a schematic presentation of approaches to Otherness, and an outline of a fully non-violent mode of engagement with Otherness drawn from a reading of the philosophy of the Indian religion of Jainism. I call this mode of engagement the search for “affinity.” It comes out of a philosophical view that I term “multiplism,” and is motivated by a metaphysics that seeks to find the balance between granting the integrity of the Other and attempting to negotiate beyond Otherness. I use “heterology” as the term for the activity that constitutes the search for affinity, and “heteronomy” to describe the relationship between self and Other that motivates such engagement. The search for affinity is undertaken because of the moral value attached to non-violence. This essay is therefore an attempt to present an actively non-violent way of relating to the Other.