A Care-based Processual Philosophy for Isonomia (no-rule): Recovering Nonviolent Politics in Pāli Texts

This study recovers a care (karuṇā)-based philosophy for building an isonomic, complex society preserved in Pāli texts. The Greek term isonomia (lit. equality), in Karatani Kōjin’s sense of no-rule, means a categorical rejection of ruler-ruled hierarchy. I extend this use of isonomia to include spiritual cultivations that relinquish habitual bondages of ruler-ruled mentality such as domination and submission. To better appreciate this kind of care-based philosophy of isonomia, I point out that it is necessary to adopt a processual paradigm, relinquish the unwarranted assumption that ancient political thought necessarily serves a ruler or a ruling class, and sidestep the Western sociopolitical imagination of governance (lit., to steer, to direct). The study further argues that, by reconceiving governance in the processual terms of establishing care-based, recurrent patterns of actions and interactions (paticca-samuppada), an isonomic complex society promises equal support for life and liberation.