Buddhism as Philosophy : An Introduction

Preface vii Abbreviations and Translation Sources ix 1 Buddhism as Philosophy? 1 Introduction to philosophy as a subject matter, and to Buddhism as philosophy 2 Early Buddhism: Basic Teachings 15 The basic teachings of Gautama the Buddha 3 Non-Self: Empty Persons 32 Arguments for the claim that there is no self, and that the person is a conceptual fiction 4 Buddhist Ethics 69 The ethical consequences of Buddhist reductionism about persons 5 A Nyaya Interlude 85 The metaphysics and epistemology of the Nyaya school of orthodox Indian philosophy 6 Abhidharma: The Metaphysics of Empty Persons 105 Abhidharma as an elaboration of the metaphysics necessary to ground Buddhist reductionism about persons 7 The Rise of Mahayana 138 Mahayana as a distinct expression of Buddhism, and its differences from Abhidharma 8 Yogacara: Impressions-Only and the Denial of Physical Objects 146 Yogkara arguments for the non-existence of physical objects, and the soteriological consequences 9 Madhyamaka: The Doctrine of Emptiness 180 Arguments for the claim that all things are empty, and how that claim should be understood 10 The School of Dinnaga: Buddhist Epistemology 208 Dinnaga's account of the means of knowledge, and its epistemological and metaphysical implications Index 231