Buddhism and western philosophy

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dyanaprajna2011
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Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by dyanaprajna2011 »

What western philosophies or philosophers come close to teaching things found within Buddhism? Are there any who actually do come close? I've found that Heraclitus actually teaches many ideas found within both Buddhism and Taoism. Plato sometimes seemed to get close, as well. Are there any others?
"If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing." -Dogen
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Rick
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by Rick »

Check out process philosophy. Here's an article comparing Whitehead and Mahayana Buddhism:

http://www.integralscience.org/whiteheadbuddhism.html
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ...
Michael_Dorfman
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by Michael_Dorfman »

dyanaprajna2011 wrote:What western philosophies or philosophers come close to teaching things found within Buddhism? Are there any who actually do come close? I've found that Heraclitus actually teaches many ideas found within both Buddhism and Taoism. Plato sometimes seemed to get close, as well. Are there any others?
Thomas McEvilley's book <i>The Shape of Ancient Thought</i> does an excellent job of showing the inter-connections between the Ancient Greek and Indian philosophical worlds. There are many philosophical schools, both East and West, that share different similarities with Buddhist thought-- and many differences as well.
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Wayfarer
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by Wayfarer »

I like McEvilly's book also, although it is not very well known in Buddhist studies.

There is also a book called Buddhism as Philosophy by Mark Siderits - I haven't read it, but it is on the reading lists at a few Universities and has a good reputation.

There is a well-documented, if speculative, connection between Madhyamaka and a school of Greek philosophy called Pyrrhonism. Pyrrho of Elis is said to have travelled to India (probably Gandhara) during Alexander's reign and returned with a philosophy which was the forerunner of the Greek skeptics. That has been the subject of several journal articles and books, including Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism by Adam Kuzminski.

There are other possible comparisons, but it takes a lot of reading of both traditions to really understand the similarities and differences. An important difference that I am aware of is that Buddhism doesn't accept 'universals' in the Platonic sense, but that is quite an arcane topic.

You might also be interested in Greg Goode's Non-Dualism and Western Philosophy.
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Some of us were talking about parallels between dharma and Stoic philosophy a while ago - http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... =0#p161474.

:reading:
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jikai
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by jikai »

If your interested in this line of enquiry, i recommend looking into existential and phenomenological philosophers like Heidegger and Husserl. not carbon copies but interesting cross overs.
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maybay
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Re: Buddhism and western philosophy

Post by maybay »

dyanaprajna2011 wrote:What western philosophies or philosophers come close to teaching things found within Buddhism? Are there any who actually do come close? I've found that Heraclitus actually teaches many ideas found within both Buddhism and Taoism. Plato sometimes seemed to get close, as well. Are there any others?
All the ingredients are there, but they're scattered about. It's a 'thicket of views'.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
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