ISSN 2227-7242 (Print), ISSN 2304-9685 (Online)

Антропологічні виміри філософських досліджень, 2019, Вип. 16

Anthropological Measurements of Philosophical Research, 2019, NO 16

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

UDC 1(091)116.6

1*National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (Kyiv, Ukraine), e-mail s.v.alushkin@gmail.com, ORCID 0000-0003-1222-4100

MATERIAL BASIS OF ETHICAL

ATTITUDE TOWARDS DESIRE

IN ANCIENT EASTERN RELIGIOUS

AND PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS

Purpose of this article is to study the phenomenon of desire in Ancient Chinese and ancient Indian society, to reveal a material basis for the appearance and formation of the specific ethical attitude towards desire in the philosophical reflection of ancient thinkers. To fulfil this purpose, we should study and analyse methodology of desire studies in philosophical and psychological literature, analyse the ethical attitude towards desire in religious and philosophical texts of Chinese and Indian thinkers, understand social and economic basis of such an ethical attitude, that is to establish material basis of desire as the specific form of psychic activity and to recreate the logic of its development. Theoretical basis. Culturological and economic studies of orientalists and dialectical logic. Originality. The paper presents the analysis of the perspectives and drawbacks of different approaches in desire studies. Research of ethical attitude towards the desire in Ancient China and India allowed us to recreate the logic of social relations and the level of productive forces in that society. The ideological foundation of conservation and recreation of power and property relations was found in the religious doctrine of suppression of individual desires. The connection between desire formation and division of labour and its preservation in the religious, political and legal forms of social consciousness was shown. Methodological perspectives of dialectical logic were defined in the study of logical and historical coincidence in the further development of the phenomenon and the notion of desire. Conclusions. Analysis of modern philosophical and psychological literature has revealed methodological drawbacks in desire studies, as they are focused on studying desire’s notion, its representation or separate aspects of desire in individual psyche disregarding its inner logic and material basis of its becoming. Studies of the ethical attitude towards desire in Eastern culture have shown the consensus in desire suppression of individuals and similarities between Ancient Chinese and Indian cultures. There is shown significance and material basis of the transcendental law suppressing the desires even of the higher classes of the oriental society. The methodological approach stated in this article can be applied for further desire studies of Ancient Greece culture, Christian ethics and modern society.

Keywords: desire; Buddhism; Hinduism; dialectical logic; materialism; development; Ancient China; Ancient India

The question of the ethical attitude of an individual towards its own desires lies in the basis of every ethical system and philosophical anthropology in general. Although European classical philosophy investigated and explained desire phenomenon one way or another, desire has obtained its own separate meaning as the characteristic of human being in philosophy of Schopenhauer and Hegel. Schopenhauer under influence of Eastern philosophical tradition and Kant has reimagined Buddhist and Hindu texts from a position of western anthropology and applied Eastern ethical systems to European space by maintaining directive to suppress and negate will to life. Hegel on his turn has pointed out desire in "Phenomenology of spirit" as the moving force in self-consciousness development and world’s history and as negativity at all. With regards to Alexandre Kojeve’s lectures (Kojeve, 2003), French philosophy and Lacan’s structuralist psychoanalysis were possible to form ethical attitude towards desire. The core of this attitude lies in appointing desire as the highest value of human being, which man has no right to betray (Mazin, 2010). Modern psychological and philosophical studies of desire tend to understand it as the motivation factor for individual activities at the level of psyche. For example, Anderson et al.
(Anderson, Hildreth, & Howland, 2015) have conducted a thorough literature review of studies dedicated to the desire for status as the fundamental motive in every kind of human activity. They hold the viewpoint on desire as the evolutionary mechanism of psyche, guaranteeing the stability of survival and development of society which they deem as conglomerate of individuals. Although rich in arguments and interesting facts this discussion between authors shows that desire is considered innate for unchangeable human nature disregarding historical, social and cultural context for desire generation.

It should be noted that the reduction of desire to the main factor of human activity motivation is contradicted by religious texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, in which one can read the calls to activity without any desires. Thus, the Buddhist scholars A. L. Herman (1979) and W. Alt (1980) write about a specific understanding of desire in the Buddhist tradition and its difference from Western common sense, which understands desire as motivation, hence trying to resolve contradictions or paradoxes of desire in Buddhism.

Buddhist ethics in modern philosophical studies stands as an approach to understand the problems of modern economy and ecology. For example, researchers of Buddhist economy apply the principle of desire negation to solve problems of social inequality and fair income distribution.

A visible sign of our endless desires is the clutter that fills our homes. Our clutter is a microcosm of what is wrong with our lives in a materialistic, affluent society that provides too many choices, and too many choices can frustrate and paralyze us… In Buddhist economics, well-being includes caring for our human spirit. Realizing our interconnection with others, we surrender our ego with its incessant demands and reach out to others with compassion. We let go of desire and attachment, and focus on how fortunate we are. (Brown, & Zsolnai, 2018, p. 501)

I think that such approach highlights direct connection of material production and ethics, but does not give any answers to the question of social inequality origins. Social relations common for traditional Indian society are studied non-critically, as a matter of course. Without detail analysis of material production in ancient society, without understanding the social mechanisms of formation of such ethical attitude towards desire and social causality of desire it is impossible to find the way of reforms in modern society.

French philosophical tradition influenced by post-structuralism holds a viewpoint on social causality of desire:

Desire does not have a biological origin, it does not find its origin in drives, it is not by nature, but always already "artificial". It is never individual but always collective, always in and for an assemblage. And in an assemblage, not only one cannot distinguish between nature and culture, but neither can one between nature and artifice. Desire does not come from the inside of the subject. It is always born from the outside, from an encounter, a coupling or an assemblage… Desire as possible does not need any mediation, any law that organizes it, any "superego" that mimes the logic of the state, since there is no drive-based chaos but emergences, beginnings, starting ups. (Lazzarato, 2017, p. 52)

Although I agree that desire is "artificial" and outer for individual, it is worth mentioning, that such approach does not take into account material basis of desire generation and its subject. Besides, I suppose, that the opposition of law, state, power and desire is false, because law has its origin in desire and will of legislators. Only in alienation the desire becomes an outer force for individual and stands against him as the imposed will of Other, while ethics of desire is the product of ruling classes ideology to maintain social status quo.

Considering the above-mentioned drawbacks, I argue for application of the logical and historical approach to study the development of desire notion throughout the ethical attitude towards desire by taking into account the specific historical conditions of formation of such an attitude and the philosophical reflection upon it. Under the term of the ethical attitude towards desire we understand the system of moral and ethical statements in relation to desire: permissibility of individual desires, permitted objects of desire, significance of desire in social life, inclusion of desire into the cultural values, tolerance to desires, etc. The ethical attitude is formed by the representatives of social classes which are able to determine economic and social structure of the given society and to shape it in forms of religion, philosophy, politics and law, thus establishing status quo in forms of social consciousness as general norm of behaviour. That is why we can study the structure of labour division in society, character of social production and distribution and peculiarities of reflection upon the human nature in certain culture by analysing its ethical attitude towards desire and vice versa.

The choice of such approach is dictated by the understanding that the study of any concept taken in the dynamics of its development is impossible without a critical comparison with the true history of mankind, otherwise the concept will be fixed in only one specific historical form, i.e. in an abstract way. Disregard to history of social relations and material production would transform any attempt to reflect on notion to mere description or translation into modern language of studied culture representatives recreating their illusions about themselves. Such methodological mistake leads to transformation of object notion as measure for this very object, i.e. one studies object notion instead of object itself. In the first place, this mistake is caused by the specifics of theoretical cognition of reality, because notion itself is the main object for theorist. However, Ukrainian philosopher Valerii Bosenko referring to Pavlo Kopnin proposes materialistic approach to notion:

Bringing to the concept-understanding of any object is to grasp it in its development, in genetic expansion, which requires to proceed from the fact how a certain phenomenon emerged in history, what are the main stages this phenomenon has passed, and in terms of its development, to see what this thing has become now. (Bosenko, 2001, p. 308)

Therefore, the study of actual logic of desire development (not just its notion) is possible through critical comprehension of existing philosophical and scientific systems of terms and notions, always paying attention to the fact that they logically reproduce reality.

The purpose of this article is to find material basis of generation and development of specific ethical attitude towards desire in philosophical reflection of ancient thinkers. To fulfil this purpose, it is necessary to analyse ethical attitude to the desire phenomenon in religious and philosophical texts of Chinese and Indian thinkers and to understand social and economic structure of those societies by highlighting the foundation of the ethical systems aimed to suppress desire, and thus to recreate the desire development logic.

The first attempts to reflect upon the phenomenon of desire and to create ethical systems with an adequate attitude thereto can be found in the ancient Eastern philosophy. The Eastern philosophy has its peculiar features due to its syncretism combining undistinguishable unity of mythology, ethics, morality, religion and philosophy itself. This syncretism is the main reason for philosophy to become the universal content of spiritual life of every member of society and to provide unity in ethics and mindset. However, this unity and uniformity come at their price. The ethical component of Chinese and Indian philosophy is directed towards the condemnation of any changes in society and any individual desires contradicting eternal transcendental law, which is called in different cultures and traditions as Dharma, Tao or Karma. Josef Lukach (1984) stresses the prominent role of transcendental law in a mindset of the East: "Along with this world there is another one, divine world: rigid, stationary and eternal, depersonalized "world of law". A negative attitude towards movement and any changes in the world emphasizes the apotheosis of transcendental tranquillity and stillness" (p. 79).

The founder of philosophical and religious teaching of Taoism Laozi establishes Tao as the eternal and universal law. To grasp Tao, one should stand on the path of inaction, "wu wei", realized in the rejection of bodily desires and "traditional" means of cognition:

Even an ethical system of Xunzi known for his materialistic interpretation of Heaven, Tian, as the ensemble of natural laws unconcerned with human morale, condemns desire as the main factor determining the evil nature of humanity. According to Sung (2012), the desire (yu) in the Xunzi system is not a source of motivation for any human action, since every activity is heart-minded (xin), but it is the desire that is the cause of internal conflicts in the human mind and results in morally wrong actions. Hence, any virtue is possible only as a result of education in a society where order, law and harmony govern above all, where desires are strictly formalized and categorized into allowed and forbidden, where one knows what feelings he should feel towards family and representatives of authority. Only through such moral upbringing can one be guided by a mind aimed at following the path of the Tao and not obey the urge of one’s desire for instant gratification.

Negation and suppression of desire is one of the central themes in Hinduism and lies in the foundation of Buddhist teachings. For example, let us compare fragment from Bhagavad-gita and the first sermon of Buddha, Adittapariyaya-sutta, where he establishes the Four Noble Truths.

So Krishna speaks: "When a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness" (Prabhupada, 1972, p. 129).

Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving [taṇhā, "thirst"] which leads to re-becoming, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for becoming, craving for disbecoming. Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it. Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is this noble eightfold path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (Bodhi, 2000)

As we can see from these fragments, desire is defined as the source of suffering and obstacle towards the enlightenment, which is understood as elimination of every desire. To understand reasons for such status and attitude towards desire in Chinese and Indian culture, we have to understand peculiarities of economic and social structure of Eastern societies. Friedrich Engels in his letter to Marx gives his interpretation of the Eastern society:

The absence of landed property is indeed the key to the whole of the East. Therein lies its political and religious history. But how to explain the fact that orientals never reached the stage of landed property, not even the feudal kind? This is, I think, largely due to the climate, combined with the nature of the land, specifically the great stretches of desert extending from the Sahara right across Arabia, Persia, India and Tartary to the highest of Asiatic uplands. Here artificial irrigation is the first prerequisite for agriculture, and this is the responsibility either of the communes, the provinces or the central government. (Marx, & Engels, 2010, p. 339)

Of course, we cannot reduce all of the richness and variety of spiritual life to presence or absence of certain ownership relations, moreover, to deduce one phenomenon of superstructure – religion, ethics and philosophy – from another – legal confirmation of property forms. However, it is important to understand the fact that ideological relations, as a superstructure phenomenon, are manifestation of substructure development moments – social relations of production, which do not depend on will and consciousness of separate individuals. That is why we can recreate the level of productive forces development and character of social relations of production by taking into account the whole ensemble of the superstructure phenomena, which are considered as human nature and essence due to multiple reproductions in social self-consciousness. The reflection upon ethics in certain philosophical system is an attempt to self-reflect one’s own practical activity and to grasp contradictions of social life (Majchut, 2018), although without any opportunity to actually solve them, because reflection is occurred only in the scope of the superstructure phenomena. As for the land ownership relations, it is really only the key to the East, but not some universal scheme explaining every social process.

The geographical and climatic conditions of human activity in Asia have led to the transformation of land suitable for agriculture into a key factor in the collective survival and subjugation of nature by man. The sole landowner in China was the Emperor, who could vest or divest the right to exploit land and appropriate harvest. Formal equality in rights was in fact the way to cement real inequality and lack of freedom. Even the Emperor who was the source of laws had to abide to traditions, rituals and strict requirements to the behaviour of the ruler responsible for China. For any violations of laws, traditions and rituals there were numerous physical punishments and for the Emperor there was a risk to lose the Mandate of Heaven or, in other words, to legitimize his dethronement. During the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s reign serfdom among peasants has become universal and remained intact up to XX century global transformations in Chinese society. Summing up what has been said, life in China was completely dependent on laws and the Emperor’s will, i.e. will and desire of a real living person, although alienated in the forms of religion, ethics and transcendental law due to the system of social relations based on specific Asian mode of production. Such a social system would lead to the antagonization of any desire, even the Emperor’s desire, as it could bring discord to a millennial way of life.

Although there was a private property in Ancient India at the times of Maurya Empire (Bongard-Levin, 1973), it was not a private property as it is, because an individual owner was not a subject of social relations. Formal right to exploit and sell landed property in India was limited by the caste system and religious rituals, e.g. sacrifices of land plots to gods. Moreover, any private land plot was bordered from every side by king’s fields where every person had to work a fixated number of hours – it was the way to preserve consistency of size and land ownership and to bind a certain community to this land. "Arthashastra" states that rural communities were not owners of a landed property, which is evident by the fact that escheated property in any community was transmitted to king’s ownership. The caste or varna system was mostly the reason to suppress individuality and private initiative, because any difference between castes were considered as natural ones and established by the transcendental law, Dharma, regulating rights and duties of every varna, including rights to own any kind of property (Hegel, 1993).

It is a curious fact, that Buddha Shakyamuni started his way to the enlightenment after an encounter with sufferings in real world, when he had seen poor man, dead body and hermit. At first, he had found the answer for his search in ascetism, which was a way to react to the development of commodities production and rulership of a private property. Unsatisfied with answers of ascetism and meditation practices the prince Gautama has rejected ascetism as an opposite extreme of hedonism and limitless satisfaction of desires. The Middle way proposed by Buddha was an attempt to avoid any extremity and contradiction by reaching the enlightenment in harmony. Thus, spending all free time in meditation and solitude had become an ideal of "earthly" human existence. The pinnacle of this way of thinking in the pursuit of liberation from desires can be considered the "Heart Sutra" that proclaims the void of every existing thing, even the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha:

Śāriputra, all dharmas are empty of characteristics — they are neither created nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, and they neither increase nor diminish. This is because in emptiness there is no form, sensation, conception, synthesis, or discrimination. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts. There are no forms, sounds, scents, tastes, sensations, or dharmas. There is no field of vision and there is no realm of thoughts. There is no ignorance nor elimination of ignorance, even up to and including no old age and death, nor elimination of old age and death. There is no suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path. There is no understanding and no attaining. (Conze, 1948, p. 43)

It is interesting to note how Kojeve’s conception of desire (Kojeve, 2003) treats desire as a manifestation of existential deficiency and void which resonates with the Eastern tradition of desire negation. We can assume that introspective research of one’s Ego in an attempt to suppress or negate desire in Buddhist practices proves that desire is an immanent attribute of human existence. But instead of finding a way to overcome this void or deficiency Buddhist teachings project inner void on the outer world and the desired nirvana appears as a cessation of existence, in other words as death in biological (because body has its own needs) and in social sense (because every action loses sense or causes sufferings, even if it is a desireless action). Such interpretation of desire in Hinduism and Buddhism as ideologies of the ruling class serves as a reasoning to conserve existing social relations, to preserve social stability and to reproduce similar cultural codes.

Such ethical attitude could emerge only in a society at such level of development when a desire is recognized as an existing and determinative form of spiritual activity or as a key determinant of activity as a whole, although contradictive to the existing system of social relations. It is illustrative that in common sense desire is considered as a need to own some things or to receive sensual pleasure, sexual at the first place. Buddhism treats such desire as a first-hand obstacle on the way to enlightenment, but does not limit its understanding. The Middle way is a way to free oneself not just from the bodily desires and things, but also from the desire to murder, trade and exist at all (Lysenko, 2003). Such attitude towards desire shows us inequality in the system of social production and distribution of different products including power, communication, recognition, etc. This inequality is the main reason for emergence of desire in forms of deficiency, void, lack and alienation reflected through religion, ethics and philosophy. Alienation itself is caused by the division of labor and formation of the commodity production in which human relations are mediated through exchange of commodities. This mediation becomes the basis for appearance of religion:

Separation between man and society, between individual and his collective essence is deeply situated in a historically conditioned limitedness of social productive forces. And this separation cannot be explained rationally for a common sense… As a result of contradiction between property relations, which are the core of labour exploitation, and labour activities, objective order stands against the subject of production, living human being, as an abstract domination of property. (Lukach, 1984, p. 19)

In the ethical attitude to overcome desire we can see a call to overcome this system of social relations and to return to the original condition, when human existence was characterized by its immediacy represented in its transformed forms as eternal bliss of nirvana or cessation of existence. This situation can be described as myth of "Paradise Lost" in Christian tradition: "At the beginning there is some condition reminding of a paradise where people live without desires and activities. And then there is the Fall which is caused by the emergence of interest to life accompanied by the labour" (Lukach, 1984, p. 84). And at the same time, such ethical attitude towards desire preserves any system of social relations suppressing any initiative capable of destroying it. In attempts to overcome desire and reach harmony with the world through religious practices of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism we can see the reflection of unbearableness of human existence in Indian and Chinese societies.

Drawbacks and perspectives of approaches equalizing phenomenon and notion of desire in modern philosophical and psychological literature were analysed. Applied dialectical methodology in this article shows the coincidence of logical and historical development of desire and its notion. Research of ethical attitude towards desire in texts of Laozi, Xunzi, Bhagavad-gita and Buddhist teachings allowed to recreate the logic of social relations and the level of productive forces of the societies at that time. Ideological agenda to preserve and recreate ownership relations was found in the doctrines of desire suppression. The connection of desire formation and the division of labour fixated in religious, political, morale and legal forms of social consciousness was shown.

Desire in ideology of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism appears as an alienated human immediacy, as a constant thirst to mediate own existence through the consumption of social products, not just commodities, which causes a rise for new needs and fixates the division of labour in the forms of slavery, caste system, physical and mental labour. Conservation of Chinese and Indian societies for millennia until European colonization indicates that contradiction between productive forces and social relations was solved in favour of preservation of social relation at the cost of production development, i.e. the victory of reactionary forces. Negative attitude towards desire in Indian philosophy was transferred in Greek philosophy, but received new context, because of different mode of production, as Ancient Greek society has already deconstructed Asian mode of production. Moreover, democratic Greek city states were situated near despotic Eastern empires making war and ideological conflicts inevitable. This ideological warfare required to adopt new approaches in philosophy and ethics. The research of changes in an ethical attitude towards desire in the context of clash between the West and the East in the Greek philosophy will be the object of further works.

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1*Національний технічний університет України "Київський політехнічний інститут імені Ігоря Сікорського"
(Київ, Україна), ел. пошта s.v.alushkin@gmail.com, ORCID 0000-0003-1222-4100

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ФІЛОСОФСЬКИХ СИСТЕМАХ

ДАВНЬОГО СХОДУ

Мета. Дослідити розвиток феномену бажання в давньокитайському та давньоіндійському суспільствах, розкривши матеріальне підґрунтя для появи, розвитку та формування специфічного етичного ставлення до бажання в філософській рефлексії давніх мислителів. Для реалізації цієї мети слід вивчити та критично проаналізувати методологічну установку на дослідження поняття бажання у філософській та психологічній літературі; проаналізувати етичне ставлення до феномену бажання в релігійно-філософських текстах китайських та індійських мислителів; з’ясувати соціально-економічні підстави для формування такого етичного ставлення до бажання та його поняття; встановити матеріальне підґрунтя для розвитку бажання як особливої форми психічної діяльності та реконструювати логіку його розвитку. Теоретичний базис. Культурологічні та політекономічні дослідження сходознавців і діалектична логіка. Наукова новизна. Проаналізовано недоліки та перспективи підходів до вивчення феномена і поняття бажання. Дослідження етичного ставлення до бажання в давньокитайському та давньоіндійському суспільствах дозволило реконструювати логіку суспільних відносин та рівень розвитку виробничих сил тієї епохи. В установці на пригнічення індивідуальних бажань виявлено ідеологічну основу для консервації та відтворення сформованих відносин влади та власності. Показано зв’язок формування бажання з процесом поділу праці й закріпленням його в релігійній, політичній та юридичній формах суспільної свідомості. Встановлено методологічні перспективи діалектичної логіки в дослідженні збігу логічного та історичного в подальшому розвитку феномена і поняття бажання. Висновки. В ході аналізу сучасної філософської та наукової літератури було виявлено методологічний недолік досліджень з вивченням поняття або уявлення про бажання в різні епохи без осмислення власної логіки виникнення цього феномена і його матеріальної основи. Дослідження етичного ставлення до бажання в східній культурі показало одностайність в плані пригнічення бажань у членів суспільства, а також спільність між давньоіндійською та давньокитайською культурами. Показано значення та матеріальні витоки трансцедентального закону, який пригнічує бажання навіть у представників вищих класів східного суспільства. Сформований в цьому дослідженні підхід може виступити підставою для подальшого вивчення феномена і поняття бажання в античній культурі, християнській етиці та сучасному суспільстві.

Ключові слова: бажання; буддизм; індуїзм; діалектична логіка; матеріалізм; розвиток; Давній Китай; Давня Індія

1*Национальный технический университет Украины "Киевский политехнический институт имени Игоря Сикорского" (Киев, Украина), эл. почта s.v.alushkin@gmail.com, ORCID 0000-0003-1222-4100

МАТЕРИАЛЬНОЕ ОСНОВАНИЕ

ЭТИЧЕСКОГО ОТНОШЕНИЯ

К ЖЕЛАНИЮ В РЕЛИГИОЗНО-

ФИЛОСОФСКИХ СИСТЕМАХ

ДРЕВНЕГО ВОСТОКА

Цель. Исследовать развитие феномена желания в древнекитайском и древнеиндийском обществе, вскрыв материальные основания для появления, развития и формирования специфического этического отношения к желанию в философской рефлексии древних мыслителей. Для реализации этой цели следует изучить и критически проанализировать методологическую установку на исследование понятия желания в философской и психологической литературе; проанализировать этическое отношение к феномену желания в религиозно-философских текстах китайских и индийских мыслителей; выяснить социально-экономические основания для формирования такого этического отношения к желанию; установить материальное основание для развития желания как особой формы психической деятельности и реконструировать логику его развития. Теоретический базис. Культурологические и политэкономические исследования востоковедов и диалектическая логика. Научная новизна. Проанализированы недостатки и перспективы подходов к изучению феномена желания и становления понятия желания. Исследование этического отношения к желанию в древнекитайском и древнеиндийском обществе позволило реконструировать логику общественных отношений и уровень развития производительных сил той эпохи. В установке на подавление индивидуальных желаний обнаружена идеологическая подоплёка на консервацию и воспроизведение сложившихся отношений власти и собственности. Показана связь формирования желания с процессом разделения труда и закреплением его в религиозной, политической и юридической формах общественного сознания. Установлены методологические перспективы диалектической логики в исследовании совпадения логического и исторического в дальнейшем развитии феномена и понятия желания. Выводы. В ходе анализа современной философской и научной литературы был выявлен методологический недостаток исследований с изучением понятия или представления о желании в разные эпохи без осмысления собственной логики возникновения этого феномена и его материальной подоплёки. Исследование этического отношения к желанию в восточной культуре показало единодушие в плане подавления желаний у членов общества, а также общность между древнеиндийской и древнекитайской культурами. Показано значение и материальные истоки трансцедентального закона, подавляющего желание даже у представителей высших классов восточного общества. Сформированный в этом исследовании подход может выступить основанием для дальнейшего изучения феномена и становления понятия желания в античной культуре, в христианской этике и в самосознании современного общества.

Ключевые слова: желание; буддизм; индуизм; диалектическая логика; материализм; развитие; Древний Китай; Древняя Индия