241021: according to gr I have now read 128 phil-indic-buddhism. so, despite not 'studying' or 'enacting' it, I feel that I have read some to offer critique. perhaps not of vast buddhist/eastern thought territoryn (read 192 Indic), but of the various introductory, intermediate, advanced, works in this living tradition. if you want more introductory there is [book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511], [book:An Introduction to Indian Philosophy|11732376], [book:Contemporary Indian Philosophy|1541972], for historical analysis there is , [book:A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities and Discontinuities|1623443], [book:Indian Philosophy: Volume I|7029455], [book:Indian Philosophy: Volume II: with an Introduction by J.N. Mohanty|7029456], [book:Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics|15956276], [book:Classical Indian Philosophy: An Introductory Text|351909], [book:An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy|2280672], then texts themselves [book:The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā|1048288], [book:Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings|6531274], [book:Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation|1639206], some favourites [book:Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy|22619704], [book:The Vimalakirti Sutra|868424], [book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]...
this follows the brief of [book:Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics|15956276], but I find it more tenable, more open, more relevant and cross-cultural critique, that includes some reflection on what pa
AT THIS POINT I LOSE MY REVIEW: I MUST AGAIN BE TOO LONG! AARRGH!
basic argument, relevant to each chapter, 4. self, 5. consciousness, 6. phenomenology, 7. epistemology. 8. logic, language, 9. ethics, 10. methodological potscript... returns to chapter 1. what is bd philosophy. 2. metaphysics 1: interdependence, impermanence.3. metaphysics 2: emptiness... this is 'virtuous circle' argument works for me. read this book, he helps make it all connect probably even to western insular philosophers...
I will continue this review on my website: www.michaelkamakana.com
if you want more: [book:Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality|4329466]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
more technical:
[book:The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā|1048288]
more:
[book:Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming Against the Stream|1480709]
[book:Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha|11200695]
[book:Gender Equality in Buddhism|12180850]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
[book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy|22619704]
[book:Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis|1709074]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:Ethics Embodied: Rethinking Selfhood Through Continental, Japanese, and Feminist Philosophies|9447857]
[book:After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|25246817]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
[book:Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings|6531274]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:Self, No Self?: Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions|10336218]
[book:After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|25246817]
[book:Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School|979829]
[book:The Kyoto School|21349529]
[book:Nishida And Western Philosophy|8274818]
[book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality|4329466]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy|2280672]
[book:Why I Am Not a Buddhist|44439993]
[book:Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey|6716321]
[book:Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics|15956276]
[book:The Vimalakirti Sutra|868424]
continuation of review:
basic argument, relevant to each chapter, 4. self, 5. consciousness, 6. phenomenology, 7. epistemology. 8. logic, language, 9. ethics, 10. methodological postscript... returns to chapter 1. what is bd philosophy. 2. metaphysics 1: interdependence, impermanence.3. metaphysics 2: emptiness... this is 'virtuous circle' argument works for me. read this book, he helps make it all connect probably even to western insular philosophers...
what is bd philosophy: this is extended argument of why, from 'western', particularly 'analytic' perspective, buddhist thought is to be considered not simply religion but also philosophy. this is not something i question. i have read about 128 books that involve bd as philosophy. while less than phenomenologists french and german this is more than anglo-american analytics so prevalent in this oxford text. i would alter subtitle to: what bd means to (western) analytic philosophy. in fact, i would entirely reverse the order of investigation: what does (western) analytic philosophy offer bd philosophy, but that is another book. for this chapter does express just how very different these attitudes are, as evidence in language, concerns, style of argument, as exemplified here where an assertion is not approached in any linear pattern but recursive, in repetition, in refocusing on central metaphysical concepts...
metaphysics one, assumed, underlying or overarching, of buddhist thought is first 'interdependence' and 'impermanence'. in one point one, on any reflection it is not difficult to see that ourselves, our worlds, our universe, are all interdependent, as perhaps western texts also argue but i read first through bd: for here the key assertion is that there need be no ground, no absolute, no origin, but that interdependence 'goes all the way down'... this is possible when there is no transcendent source such as God or Being... metaphysics one point two is impermanence, again not difficult concept, which is implied by the first point, for how does the ten thousand things come to interact interdependently without some arising, others departing, for point one is in time as well as more familiar space: i read that an example is the usefulness of death, for how does sprout come without death of seed, how does grass come without death of sprout, how does animal come without death of grass...
metaphysics two is subsequently implied, is truly rather more difficult concept, but finally inescapable conclusion of metaphysics one, assumed, underlying or overarching, and this is 'emptiness'. it is important this is not 'nothingness' or 'lack of existence', but lack of 'essence', that favourite descriptive matrix for western thought. emptiness is misunderstood as claims toward that big bad of nihilism, but is in fact, paradoxically, against such interpretation of the real: for how can there be individual essence if all is interdependent, for how can there be essence that persists though universal impermanence. emptiness is refusal of 'inherent essence' as it conflicts with metaphysics one and two... emptiness is ultimate truth, not the 'conventional' real through which we navigate our human lives of convenient truth, grass is green, snow is cold etc. though there will be some argument it is only though convention we can know ultimate, that convention is 'truth' as well, and emptiness should be conceived in terms of vessel to be filled with real rather than illusory absence...
this is when we begin to elaborate consequences of thinking through implications of 2 and 3 above, 4. self, which is psychologically considered 'essential' to western thought from an egoistic insistence, which falls against the arguments or three above, not difficult concept but wholly other impression of healthy human... who integrates, understands, enacts the outcomes of two and three above
consciousness, which is the last bastion westerners claim as definite proof of existence of 'essential' self, which is found vulnerable to simply more subtle variations on the metaphysics one, two, three... for what is this persisting thing we call 'consciousness' but ongoing stream of mental events, and how can this be identified with persisting something like self, as ultimate truth...
phenomenology, here the author admits the historically-determined multiple definitions of the term, which is for me not hegel but husserl, though my attitudes are those of french philosopher merleau-ponty, he finds connections with wittgenstein, strawson etc. (of whom i have read little)... but this is primarily demonstrating these ancient and more recent indic philosophers precede western thinkers in many ways, which is where i would reverse emphasis of subtitle as mentioned above...
epistemology is the contrast of western concept of knowledge as 'justified true belief' with bd concern with two levels of truth, conventional and ultimate, first asserting bd works without universals, with pure particularity, with 'nominalism' (here is frustrating aspect of westerners trying to render bd terms in their thought-universes, with variable exactness), next by investigating how bd thought understands 'true illusions' such as mirages...
logic, language, further proof i should try more wittgenstein (7)...
ethics, returns to metaphysics one and two and three, to interdependence and impermanence, to all subsequent implications in chapters 4. self, 5. consciousness, 6. phenomenology, 7. epistemology. 8. logic, language, 9. ethics...
methodological postscript, returns to chapter one with final exhortation to (western) philosophers, to take budddhist philosophy as livng, breathing as well as venerable source for whatever analytic thought they employ. for me, the application goes the other way. for me, it is, here like any art, limitations of the media which i find most unfortunate: it is clear that the argument(s) for buddhist philosophy are virtuous circle, so why are we unable to express this in form, like the infinite book posited by borges? this returns to chapter one...
Comentarios