Vedanta and the philosophy of international law: From human sociality to ahuman reality

Abstract

Conventionally, sociality is deemed the true human condition; it is the reality cast before humanity by the collective social self-consciousness of its members. International law is a legal consciousness, a vital constituent of sociality. In a challenge to this position, this article, drawing on the Vedic philosophy of ancient India, particularly its Vedanta part, argues that the true human condition is not sociality but a transcendental super-consciousness, upon which a social consciousness is superimposed. The super-consciousness is an intellectual fullness of mind, a transcendental state into which all constructs created by consciousness collapse. This collapse also brings about the collapse of sociality and international law. The article then envisages a transcendental foundation of law that embodies the deeper logic and higher level of reasoning distinctive of the super-consciousness. What is international law in sociality becomes a profound intellectual discursivity in the transcendental scheme.