오계의 일상적 실천을 위한 행위전략 모색

An Act Strategy for Everyday Practice of Five Precepts -focused on utilitarian justification of Five Precepts-

&nbsp;&nbsp;The purpose of this essay is to find out a way of justifying the Buddhist Five Precepts in the utilitarian viewpoint. As we all know it, utilitarianism has been theoretically misunderstood for a long time both in the Western ethics and in the traditional ethics of East. Despite of many theoretical shortcomings of utilitarianism, however, its practical usefulness is still worth considering in the ethical thinking boundary. No one probably would deny this merit of utilitarianism, whether s(h)e is utilitarian or not. Here I am going to use such aspect of utilitarianism and then to interpret the Five Precepts newly in the modern sense for more easier understanding and practising the Precepts. My main point is that it is possible to rewrite each precept in the utilitarian color easily. Moreover I think this could be helpful putting the precepts into practise in our every day life as a Buddhist. There has been already examples of reinterpreting the Ten Commandments of Christianity and the ethical implication of Jesus’ lectures as a kind of utilitarian ethics.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;For example, J. S. Mill and Geoffrey Scarre advocate this way of elucidation in their own works called Utilitarianism(1861) and Utilitarianism(1996) respectably. Anyway Christian Ethics could have been read more succinctly in our daily life as a moral guidance. Like this, the Five Precepts of Buddhism is also needed reestablish for our Buddhists in the 21st century. Individually I think it is a way of living for Buddhist ethics to survive and prosper in the future generation. Because they are mainly called as egoists in the ethical meaning and they are really not concerned with other people except themselves. For them the utilitarian value and action is persuaded convincingly more than any other ethical principle, so to speak, the Kantian deontology. Considering the problems of modern society, Buddhist ethics should also be more simplified and more applicable to our practical questions concretely. If we are courageous enough to do this work, then the Five Precepts would be able to function as a global ethics. Of course my opinion need to overcome many expected criticisms in Buddhism.