Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction
Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction
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作为哲学的佛教：简介
DOI：
10.1080/15665399.2008.10819982
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Pan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Pan
与基督教相比，佛教似乎更具哲学性，因此值得从哲学的角度加以研究。正如阿尔弗雷德·诺斯·怀特海（Alfred North Whitehead）所言，佛教是一种产生宗教的形而上学，而基督教一直是一种寻求形而上学的宗教（Religion in the Making [剑桥：剑桥大学出版社，1930]，第39 -40页）。然而，尽管有许多关于佛教思想的书籍，其中可能包括佛教各个流派的教义或哲学思想，但这些对佛教思想的介绍并不多，因为哲学对佛教进行了深刻的哲学分析。其中一些在其标题或正文中使用了“哲学”一词，但实际内容通常仅限于阐述佛教思想的内容，而不是批判性地和批判性地对其进行审查。对佛教的哲学分析发展不足的一个原因可能是，这些入门教科书的许多作者都是主要接受宗教研究或东方研究而不是哲学培训的学者。因此，他们的方法通常是语言学的，历史的，训诂学的或探索性的，强调要么翻译和解释的思想的准确性或从文本中得出的哲学智慧的含义的阐述。他们中没有多少人能对佛教经典进行深入而严谨的哲学分析。与其他介绍佛教思想的书籍不同，这本书主要遵循分析哲学的方法，试图考察佛教哲学，特别是形而上学，认识论和伦理学，是否在哲学上是正确的。在这方面，它也与Arvind Sharma的Philosophy of Religion：A Buddhist Perspective（Oxford：Oxford University Press，1995）有很大的不同，后者试图从佛教的角度解决西方宗教哲学中流行的相当传统的问题，例如上帝、邪恶、宗教语言等问题。当采取一个彻底的哲学方法来对待佛教，马克Siderits打开了一个非常适当的，以及仔细的解释的可能性，适合性和限制接近佛教的哲学方式。他明确指出，这项研究必须是有选择性的，并集中在佛教文本提出的哲学理论和论点，而不是牺牲
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 Making [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930], pp.39–40). 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 introductions to Buddhist thought can offer penetrating philosophical analyses on Buddhism 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 exploratory, 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 review, 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