8 papers in the library · 2 citations · publishing 2025
August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits 2 citations
Abstract Indian Buddhist philosophers uniformly rejected physicalism, the view that everything is physical in nature, in favor of either a dualist or an idealist ontology. This work explores the question of whether this stance can be justified in light of our current understanding of the natural world and our place in it. Might physicalism be compatible with Buddhism? It explores the...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter begins the process of bringing the Indian Buddhist tradition’s views on the nature of consciousness into conversation with current work in the philosophy of consciousness and cognitive development. Some key terms used in current work are introduced and compared to concepts employed in Buddhist philosophy of mind. The difficulties involved in developing a non-egological...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter discusses the place of consciousness in early Buddhism and Abhidharma. All schools of classical Indian Buddhism hold that consciousness is ultimately real, a claim a physicalist Buddhism would have to deny. The question is raised whether a non-egological account of consciousness can be formulated in a way that is consistent with the metaphysical scruples shaping the...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter presents evidence from empirical research on cognitive development, as well as from philosophy of consciousness, for a central claim of a physicalist illusionism: that meta-cognition involves the subject’s post-hoc application of theory of mind to their own case. It explores recent work on the child’s acquisition of theory of mind, and the debate concerning whether there...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter addresses the “hard problem” of phenomenal consciousness that confronts any form of physicalism. After describing the problem and discussing some common approaches that physicalists have offered in response, it attempts to develop a specifically Buddhist approach to its resolution. This turns on the key point that first-person application of theory of mind involves the...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter examines the foundations of Buddhist metaphysics in the teachings of the Buddha and his immediate disciples. It introduces the Buddhist soteriological project—to bring about the cessation of existential suffering—and the role played by the exercise of philosophical rationality in that project. Central to the Buddha’s diagnosis of the origins of suffering is the doctrine of...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter examines the attempt by the New Yogācāra philosophers Dignāga and Dharmakīrti to show that occurrences of consciousness are the only ultimately real entities. It critically examines their arguments for the claim that a given occurrence of consciousness cognizes not only its intentional object but also itself—that consciousness is reflexively self-illuminating. It argues...
Buddhist Physicalism? August 5, 2025 Mark Siderits
Abstract This chapter addresses concerns that have been raised concerning any project that seeks to “naturalize” Buddhism. One major concern is that the embrace of physicalism would render the karma-rebirth ideology highly implausible. Another concern is that physicalism’s illusionism would seem to be incompatible with the central role of meditation in Buddhist practice, given the common...