The Highest Good in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Bhagavad Gita: Knowledge, Happiness, and Freedom

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Roopen Majithia (Mount Allison University, Canada)

The Highest Good in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Bhagavad Gita

Knowledge, Happiness, and Freedom

Roopen Majithia (Mount Allison University, Canada)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
30 October 2025

Oriental & Indian philosophy; Hinduism

This open access book presents a comparative study of two classics

of world literature, offering the first sustained consideration of what

unites and divides the Nicomachean Ethics and the Bhagavad Gita.

Focusing on the nature of ethical action and how it relates to the

highest good, Roopen Majithia demonstrates how the Gita stresses the

objectivity of knowledge and freedom from being a subject, while the

Ethics emphasizes the knower, working out Aristotle’s central commitment

to the idea of substance as the primary building block of the world. Yet

both the Gita and the Ethics explain variety in human behaviour in terms

of three driving forces. Both agree moral agency is a construct that is a

function of background, education, and habit, presupposing a cultural,

political, and economic infrastructure, all of which shapes how each in turn

conceives the highest good.

What distinguishes the texts is how the content of right action is

generated. Reading them together, alert to their individual accounts

of how the practical relates to the reflective dimensions of life, Majithia

enriches our understanding of two cornerstone texts in the Greek and

Indian philosophical traditions.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Marjorie Young Bell Faculty Fund, The Philosophy Department’s Baxter Fund and The Hart Almerrin Massey Endowment.

By: Roopen Majithia (Mount Allison University Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350215139
ISBN 10: 1350215139
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 30 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1. The Nature of Moral Intentionality in Aristotle’s Ethics 2. Personality and Agency in Aristotle’s Ethics 3. The Nature of Ethical Intentionality in the Gita 4. Personality and Agency in the Gita Coda: A Dialogue on the Nature of Intentionality, Personality and Agency in the Gita and the Ethics 5. Virtue and the Rule of Law in Aristotle’s Ethics 6. Dharma and the Transformation of Ethical Content in the Gita 7. Karma and Jñana Yoga: The Relation of the Active and Contemplative lives in the Gita 8. Theoria and Praxis: Contemplation and Action in Aristotle’s Ethics Conclusion Bibliography Index

Roopen Majithia is Professor, Head and Hart Almerrin Massey Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Mount Allison University, Canada.