Jaimini

Indian

Born c. 3rd century BCE

He built a whole philosophy around action and the authority of the word, asking what it means for a duty to bind.

Jaimini founded Mimamsa, the school devoted to interpreting the ritual and ethical commands of the Vedas. Its concern looks narrow and turns out to be deep: what gives an instruction its authority, how words carry meaning, and why one ought to do what duty demands even when no reward is visible. To defend the eternal authority of scripture, the Mimamsakas developed sharp theories of language, evidence, and obligation that influenced every later Indian thinker. They argued, strikingly, that duty can be its own end, performed because it is right rather than for its fruits.

Places

Ideas

Duty Faith & Reason

Words

“Now, therefore, the inquiry into duty.”
— Jaimini

Works

The Mimamsa Sutras

attributed

·Sanskrit

Jaimini's aphorisms on the interpretation of Vedic duty. In defending the authority of the ritual word, the Mimamsakas developed sharp theories of language, evidence, and obligation, and argued that duty may be performed for its own sake rather than its fruits.