Buddhist Philosophy

Since the time of the Buddha, Buddhists have developed a rigorous and profound tradition of philosophy. The Buddhist path consists in the combined practice of philosophical reasoning, ethical practice and meditation. This course will focus on philosophical reasoning (but may incorporate some meditation). For Buddhists, enlightenment is attained by gaining insight into the nature of reality (metaphysics), knowledge (epistemology), language (philosophy of language) and our ways of living (ethics). These insights are acquired, in large part, by subjecting our beliefs to rational scrutiny. In this course, we critically examine some of the core issues in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and ethics that are elaborated by Buddhist philosophers. The course proceeds by analyzing some core texts of Buddhist philosophy (in English translation) together with some secondary literature. We study Buddhist philosophy not as an item of historical and cultural interest but as an attempt to ascertain how much truth lies in this system of thought. Once we gain an understanding of the views expounded by Buddhist philosophers, we will subject their doctrines to rational scrutiny.