A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
After many years, I am sort of fed up with having to answer the question above, and this is also why I had not read the essay by Barua (bearing the title Is there ‘Philosophy’ in India? An Exercise in Continue reading “Is there Philosophy in India?” and what this question tells us, an essay by Ankur Barua
A while ago I referred to Śāntideva’s thought as “ethics without morality” – a deliberately provocative formulation based on Shyam Ranganathan’s eccentric definition of morality as that which conduces to anger. (I don’t agree with Shyam’s definition myself, but putting Continue reading Goodness as preventing suffering
In the case of the Śyena and the Agnīṣomīya rituals, violence is once condemned and once allowed, causing long discussions among Mīmāṃsā authors. Similarly, the prohibition to eat kalañja, onion and garlic is interpreted differently than the prohibition to look Continue reading What do I obtain if I refrain from eating onion (and so on)?
Mary is a doctor who volunteers often. She works in low income clinics, and travels to foreign nations to treat epidemics. If you ask her why she’s willing to sacrifice her time, she might grip your arm while a look Continue reading Somewhat vague worries about classification and Indian Buddhist ethics
There is a bit in U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel Samskara about a young brahman who listens to his teacher’s description of Śakuntalā and gets so hot and bothered that he runs off and jumps into the river, where he meets and Continue reading Erotic poetry will make you a better person
I just found out through Philpapers about a forthcoming article by “our” Stephen Harris, who perhaps might want to elaborate a little bit more about it here? The title is: Suffering and the Shape of Well-Being in Buddhist Ethics and Continue reading Stephen Harris on Suffering and Buddhist Ethics
My discussion with Justin Whitaker continues after my last post, which was a response to his original post about trans* inclusiveness in Buddhism. There followed a discussion back and forth between Justin and myself. The discussion has moved away from Continue reading On justice and activism in Pali Buddhism
On his American Buddhist Perspective blog, my friend Justin Whitaker recently posted an interesting interview on the experience of trans* people in American Buddhism. Justin uses “trans*” as a shorthand for “transgender”, “transsexual”, “transvestite” and similar terms – to denote Continue reading Trans* inclusiveness as an innovation to Buddhism
I was glad to see that Amod Lele had published an article in The Journal of Buddhist Ethics expressing some of the central conclusions of his dissertation. The article, “The Compassionate Gift of Vice: Śāntideva on Gifts, Altruism and Poverty” Continue reading Comment on Lele’s “The Compassionate Gift of Vice” (Journal of Buddhist Ethics Vol 20. 2013).
A little while ago, Matthew Dasti provided a fascinating glimpse into the recent, 20th-century history of “Indian philosophy” – not the doing of it but the studying of it, the history of “secondary work” into Indian philosophy. Since Westerners have Continue reading Matilal vs. Radhakrishnan