ABSTRACT
Beginning with a distinction between two methods of explanation, one deferential to truth (interpretation) and the other deferential to valid inference (explication), I explicate four basic approaches to the Right or the Good, and note that while three are familiar in the Western tradition (Virtue Ethics, Consequentialism, and Deontology), there is room for a fourth that is quite unique to the Indian tradition. This theory is commonly called “Yoga” (meditation) but it is also called “Bhakti,” which means “devotion,” but also “love.” In this chapter I explore love as a basic option of moral theory, and an influential model in the Indian tradition. It not only captures many common intuitions about love (an idea that ranges over interpersonal relationships, but also our affection for things); it also explains why love transcends natural boundaries of sex and species, and how it ranges over many differing kinds of relationships characterized by differing verities of intimacy, but also provides reason for us to stand for a common interest in our own Lordliness (the procedural ideal of personhood), analyzable into unconservativism and self-governance. Love in practical terms involves taking sides in conflicts, and defending the vulnerable, as we are devoted to the procedural ideal of personhood. It gives us grounds for resisting conventional morality to bring about radical social change.
