The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s6.1

c10.s6.1

In every system of political and social philosophy, idealistic or realistic, and ancient, medieval or modern, the problems of personality cannot but occupy a prominent place.¹² It may not be clear, except to the idealists like Jellinek who believe in the "autolimitation" of the state, as to whether ethics is to be treated as a part of politics or politics as a part of ethics. To such "monists" the problem does not exist. But even to realists the close relations between the two, functional, causal, psychological or otherwise, pragmatic as they are, bring before our eyes an extensive common ground of activities and norms. Naturally, therefore, every individual who deals with "values" and is therefore a "futurist," every moralist who is trying to transform Nature and the world by the "creative urges" of the spirit, every educational scheme that is looking forward to the "remaking" of man or societal reconstruction, and every propaganda that is furnished with an ethical bias, social message or "spiritual" content belong, as a matter of course, to the domain of political speculation. Politics can then annex virtually the whole of Śākyan categories in a generic manner to itself.