Dharmakı¯rti
Routledge eBooks October 4, 2016 DOI: 10.4324/9781315678023-10 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that Dharmakīrti's rejection of physicalism is motivated by soteriological concerns about rebirth, and that his own argument against physicalism is unpromising. Proposes examining Dharmakīrti's claim that consciousness is necessarily reflexive as a potentially better basis for questioning reductive physicalism. |
Abstract
The problem of consciousness investigated in this volume is a problem primarily for physicalists. Dharmakı¯rti, like all other Indian Buddhist philosophers, rejects physicalism. 1 The motivation behind the panBuddhist consensus on physicalism is soteriological in nature: if a sentient being is no more than a body and a brain, then rebirth would seem to be ruled out, and at death everyone e ortlessly attains the professed Buddhist goal of cessation of rebirth. While this might be his motive for rejecting physicalism, Dharmakı¯rti nevertheless must supply an argument in response to the physicalist threat to his religious practice. We will examine the argument he provides. 2 But since it turns out to be unpromising, we will also examine his claim that consciousness is necessarily refl exive, to see if this might be used to construct a better reason to question a reductive physicalist account of sentience.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |