A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
I’m continuing to examine Justin Whitaker‘s interpretation of Pali Buddhist ethics as Kantian moral law. I argued last time that the concept of dhamma does not serve in these texts as a universal, trans-human moral law. Here I want to Continue reading Karmic punishment is not a good thing
In his interesting recent Buddhism and Political Theory, Matthew Moore sums up current scholarly work on Buddhist ethics noting “There are several major debates ongoing in the field, particularly whether early Buddhist ethics are better understood as consequentialist or a Continue reading The dhamma is not a transcendent law
As I noted last time, I think the disregard of ethics by Indian-philosophy scholars like Dan Arnold is a problem in itself: it’s a misconception of what philosophy is, and one that harmfully shrinks the field of the study of Continue reading The significance of ethics to Candrakīrti’s metaphysics
It is commonplace today for scholars of Indian philosophy to focus their attention entirely on theoretical philosophy at the expense of the practical. I think this tendency is a mistake. I see at least two grave problems with it. First: Continue reading Don’t exclude ethics from philosophy
Cross-posted at Love of All Wisdom. A friend read the previous post on ibn Sīnā and Śāntideva and asked (on Google+) what exactly I meant by “incompleteness”. It was a great question and made me realize there was a bit Continue reading Incompleteness in knowledge and existence
Cross-posted at Love of All Wisdom. I’ve been thinking lately about MacIntyre’s explanation of the Muslim philosopher ibn Sīnā and the ways in which ibn Sīnā’s concept of God requires us to rethink the entire world around us if we Continue reading ibn Sīnā and Śāntideva on the incompleteness of the world
Cross-posted at Love of All Wisdom. Śāntideva’s anti-political views are very commonly missed by Buddhist scholars today, especially constructive or theological ones, who are excited by the Engaged Buddhist embrace of political action. He is hardly alone among classical Indian Continue reading Disengaged Buddhism in the era of Trump
Global Philosophy Resources, www.globalphilosophyresources.com, provides easy-to-use resources for faculty members who are interested in diversifying their teaching but who lack training in nonwestern philosophy. It is looking for contributors. Guidelines: Each entry should introduce a nonwestern text that would be suitable Continue reading Global Philosophy Resources: call for contributions
[Cross-posted on Love of All Wisdom.] Late last year I was delighted to see a post from Richard Payne retracting his earlier post on “White Buddhism”, motivated at least in part by my critique. It is all too rare to Continue reading Farewell to “Yavanayāna”
Cross-posted on Love of All Wisdom. Last time I examined Andrew Ollett’s distinction between “decision-oriented” texts like Kant’s Grounding and “capacity-oriented” texts like Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga, and the ways in which that distinction might suggest a “philosophical” versus a “historical” approach Continue reading Philosophical and historical uses together