PHIL 3722 - Buddhist Philosophy

Credit Hours: (3)

Description: This course will examine the origins of Buddhist thought, and explore some of its developments as it spread throughout Asia and eventually into North America. We will begin by examining Buddhist thought during and shortly after the Buddha’s lifetime, and then we will turn our attention to the two principal schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism: Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. The Madhyamaka school is characterized by the view of emptiness (the view that all things are devoid of independent, inherently existing essences). The Yogācāra school reinterprets the concept of emptiness, emphasizing the idea that nothing is ultimately separate from the mind. We will then turn our attention to the Chan/Zen lineage as they originated in China and developed in Japan through Dogen’s Sōtō Zen characterized by seated meditation and Hakuin’s Rinzai Zen characterized by kōan recitation. We will then turn our attention to modern interpretations of Buddhist thought. This course may cover India, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, North America and Brazil.