@article{98084ff2f2bb420bbfbfc567e54da55b,
title = "Buddhism as Reductionism: Personal Identity and Ethics in Parfitian Readings of Buddhist Philosophy; from Steven Collins to the Present",
abstract = "Derek Parfit{\textquoteright}s early work on the metaphysics of persons has had a vast influence on Western philosophical debates about the nature of personal identity and moral theory. Within the study of Buddhism, it also has sparked a continuous comparative discourse, which seeks to explicate Buddhist philosophical principles in light of Parfit{\textquoteright}s conceptual framework. Examining important Parfitian-inspired studies of Buddhist philosophy, this article points out various ways in which a Parfitian lens shaped, often implicitly, contemporary understandings of the anātman (no-self) doctrine and its relation to Buddhist ethics. I discuss in particular three dominant elements appropriated by Parfitian-inspired scholarship: Parfit{\textquoteright}s theoretical categories; philosophical problems raised by his reductionist theory of persons; and Parfit{\textquoteright}s argumentative style. I argue that the three elements used in this scholarship constitute different facets of one methodological approach to cross-cultural philosophy, which relies on Western terminology and conceptual schemes to establish a conversation with non-Western philosophy. I suggest that while this methodology is fruitful in many ways, philosophy as a cosmopolitan space may benefit significantly from approaching Buddhist philosophy using its own categories and terminology.",
keywords = "Buddhism, Buddhist ethics, Comparative philosophy, Derek Parfit, Personal identity, Reductionism, {\'S}āntideva",
author = "Oren Hanner",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements This article was written with the generous support of a research grant by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and a postdoctoral fellowship by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. I am deeply indebted to Jay Garfield and Alexander von Rospatt for comments that significantly improved the paper. My thanks also go to Purushottama Bilimoria for kindly facilitating the publication of the article and providing access to unpublished material, as well as to members of UC Berkeley{\textquoteright}s Humanities and Social Sciences Association for their encouraging feedback. The third section of the article stems from a paper presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vienna, August 2014. I wish to thank Gordon Davis, Pierre-Julian Harter, Mark Siderits, Roy Tzohar, David Weinstein, and Michael Zimmermann for their helpful comments, suggestions, and corrections. Any errors remaining are, of course, my own responsibility. Funding Information: This article was written with the generous support of a research grant by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and a postdoctoral fellowship by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. I am deeply indebted to Jay Garfield and Alexander von Rospatt for comments that significantly improved the paper. My thanks also go to Purushottama Bilimoria for kindly facilitating the publication of the article and providing access to unpublished material, as well as to members of UC Berkeley?s Humanities and Social Sciences Association for their encouraging feedback. The third section of the article stems from a paper presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vienna, August 2014. I wish to thank Gordon Davis, Pierre-Julian Harter, Mark Siderits, Roy Tzohar, David Weinstein, and Michael Zimmermann for their helpful comments, suggestions, and corrections. Any errors remaining are, of course, my own responsibility. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, Springer Nature B.V.",
year = "2018",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1007/s11841-018-0668-3",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "57",
pages = "211--231",
journal = "Sophia",
issn = "0038-1527",
publisher = "Springer Netherlands",
number = "2",
}