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Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction
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Short Description: Jul 31, 2008 ... In comparison with Christianity, Buddhism seems more philosophical and ... Whitehead suggests, Buddhism is a metaphysic generating a ...
Content Inside: Ars Disputandi Volume 8 (2008) ISSN: 15665399 Pan-Chiu Lai Buddhism as Philosophy: An CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, HONG KONG Introduction By Mark Siderits Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007; ix + 232 pp.; pb. £ 16.99; ISBN: 9780754653691. In comparison with Christianity, Buddhism seems more philosophical and therefore it deserves to be studied in a philosophical way. As Alfred North Whitehead suggests, Buddhism is a metaphysic generating a religion, whereas Christianity has always been a religion seeking a metaphysic (Religion in the Mak- ing [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930], pp.3940). However, though there are many books on the Buddhist thought which may include the doctrines or philosophical ideas of various Buddhist schools, not so many of these introduc- tions to Buddhist thought can offer penetrating philosophical analyses on Bud- dhism as philosophy. Some of them employ the word `philosophy' in their titles or main text, but the actual content is typically limited to explicating the contents of Buddhist thought rather than examining it critically and philosophically. One reason for this underdevelopment of philosophical analysis of Buddhism might be that many of the authors of these introductory textbooks have been scholars trained mainly in religious studies or oriental studies rather than in philosophy. Their approaches are therefore usually philological, historical, exegetical or ex- ploratory, emphasizing either the accuracy of the translation and interpretation of the ideas or the elaboration of the implications of the philosophical wisdoms to be derived from the texts. Not so many of them can offer a penetrating and rigorous philosophical analysis of Buddhist texts. Unlike other introductory books on Buddhist thought, the book under re- view, following mainly the approach of analytical philosophy, attempts to examine whether the philosophies of Buddhism, especially the metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, are philosophically sound. In this way, it also differs significantly from Arvind Sharma's Philosophy of Religion: A Buddhist Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), which attempts to address the rather conventional issues in philosophy of religion prevalent in the West, e.g. the problems of God, evil, religious language, from a Buddhist perspective. When adopting a thoroughly philosophical approach to Buddhism, Mark Siderits opens with a very appropriate as well as careful explanation on the possibility, suitability and limitation of approaching Buddhism in a philosophical way. He states clearly that this study has to be selective and focused on the Buddhist texts presenting philosophical theories and arguments at the expense of c July 31, 2008, Ars Disputandi. If you would like to cite this article, please do so as follows: Pan-Chiu Lai, `Review of Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction,' Ars Disputandi [http://www.ArsDisputandi. org] 8 (2008), 110111.
