Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: Ama toshimaro I.The Need for a Shin Buddhist Social Ethics S OCIAL ethics does not refer to personal morality, but rather deals with the question of a person's role in, and responsibility towards, social prob lems, and how one can best engage oneself in society in order to create a bet ter world.This was not a problem in the pre-modem age when society and the state were accepted as "given," and when people were generally content with keeping their position in society as good subjects.It was only when the ideal of a nation state came into existence that social ethics became a topic of serious debate, as people were then able to participate in the creation of the nation and society as equal members of their country.In Japan, social ethics became an important issue only in 1945 when, with her defeat in World War II, the imperial system collapsed and a new Con stitution, based on popular sovereignty, was adopted.In this sense, "social ethics" is a fairly new concept in Japan, which became an issue, first and foremost, at the level of the ordinary citizen, as it still is today, where active participation in political, economic, educational and environmental prob lems-all of which substantially affect daily life-was required as morals for citizenship.Under such circumstances, why is it necessary to stress the need for a social ethics based on Shin Buddhism?As stated above, such ethics is a mat ter of individual concern with one's relationship to society, and therefore, it may be argued that it is sufficient for a Shin Buddhist to participate in soci ety at the level of an ordinary citizen.However, it is important to note that
Authors: Ama Toshimaro, Robert F. Rhodes
Language: English
Topic: Indian and Buddhist Studies
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W115867937