While 'individuality' is regarded as a cultural construct, this article argues that its trans-cultural investigation has hardly begun, both empirically and theoretically. Comparative work to date has been confined to euro-centric approaches. South Asian models of the individual, though amongst the earliest on record, have not been taken seriously as credible alternatives to European models, other than under the label of 'ethnosociology'. The present article seeks to redress the balance, by offering a sociological reconstruction of the classical concept of the individual in Jaina philosophy and of its social implications. It argues that previously opaque aspects of the dualistic conception of individuality of the Jainas can be freshly understood, and analysed, with the help of the sociological concepts of G. Simmel and N. Luhmann, which in turn are interpreted as variations of broader transcultural themes.
目次
Abstract 212 The Individual and its Parts 216 Dividuality 229 The Individual as a Social Form 236 Renunciation, Self-Differentiation, and Quantification 237 Sociology of Philosophy East and West 242 Sociology of the Individual in South Asia 251 Vedic and Buddhist Conceptions of the Individual 256 References 262 Primary Sources 262 Secondary Sources 262
