RT Article
T1 Saving Them From Yourself: AnInquiry into the South Asian Gift of Fearlessness
JF Journal of religious ethics
VO 27
IS 3
SP 437
OP 462
A1 Hibbets, Maria
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 1999
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/182238396X
AB This article considers the importance of indigenous classifications in the study of comparative ethics. Specifically, it explores medieval South Asian gift discourses from Jain, Theravada, and Hindu Dharmasastra sources, which list and discuss a variety of prescribed gifts. Such lists generally include a category of gift known as the “gift of fearlessness”(abhayadana), wherein refraining from harming others is considered a species of gift giving. This type of gift and the discussions concerning it unite generosity and nonviolence in a way that is suggestive for understanding how some medieval South Asian theorists conceived of the gift, human nature, and altruism.
K1 Theravada Buddhism
K1 Jainism
K1 Gift
K1 Fear
K1 Dharmasastra
K1 comparative ethics
K1 Altruism
DO 10.1111/0384-9694.00026