On the very idea of Buddhist ethics

I’ve recently been reading Christopher Gowans’s Buddhist Moral Philosophy: An Introduction. It is an introductory textbook of a sort that has not previously been attempted, and one that becomes particularly interesting in the light of David Chapman’s critiques of Buddhist Continue reading On the very idea of Buddhist ethics→

Inclusion on the APA Blog

Our very own Anand Vaidya has two recent blog posts on the new Blog of the American Philosophical Association.  The first post, “The Inclusion Problem in the Philosophy of Mind: The Case of Dualism,” looks at ways to include non-Western Continue reading Inclusion on the APA Blog→

Why studying Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta through Veṅkaṭanātha: An introduction for lay readers

The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta is a philosophical and theological school active chiefly in South India, from the last centuries of the first millennium until today and holding that the Ultimate is a personal God who is the only existing entity and Continue reading Why studying Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta through Veṅkaṭanātha: An introduction for lay readers→

Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy 2015

As promised, this (a bit belated) post summarizes some talks from the October 2015 Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy in Monterey, CA. To keep the post brief, I’m choosing to discuss only those SACP talks which I attended, have Continue reading Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy 2015→

Unchaste literature and the “social aesthetic”

Satyanarayana asked a very interesting question a while back. Literature (kāvya) was widely believed to be a kind of moral education, even if it “seduces us like a lover” (kāntasaṃmitatayā); other types of texts, namely scripture (śāstra) and sacred lore Continue reading Unchaste literature and the “social aesthetic”→

Book Review of Hinduism and Environmental Ethics by Christopher G. Framarin (Reviewed by Elisa Freschi)

Christopher G. Framarin. Hinduism and Environmental Ethics: Law, literature, and philosophy. 192 pp. London and New York: Routledge. 2014. 140 USD. Hardcover [Book Review Editor’s Note: This book has previously been reviewed on this blog by Stephen Harris.  See Harris’s Continue reading Book Review of Hinduism and Environmental Ethics by Christopher G. Framarin (Reviewed by Elisa Freschi)→

On the universality of ethics (Rahul Peter Das 2012 and Hindu bioethics)

In a previous post I had discussed the importance of making the discussions on global ethics more inclusive. Now, while reading Rahul Peter Das’ On “Hindu” Bioethics (in Saṃskṛta-sādhutā, the Festschrift for Ashok Aklujkar) I found however a possible objection Continue reading On the universality of ethics (Rahul Peter Das 2012 and Hindu bioethics)→

The duty to do philosophy interculturally

“Is the debate on global justice a global one?”—asks Anke Graness at the beginning of an article (available OA here) in which she analyses the more common positions on global justice held in Western academia and confronts them with the Continue reading The duty to do philosophy interculturally→