buddhistethics posted: "ISSN
1076-9005 Volume 25, 2018 False Friends: Dependent Origination and the Perils
of Analogy in Cross-Cultural Philosophy Karin Meyers Centre for Buddhist
Studies Kathmandu University Cross-cultural philosophical inquiry is predicated
on the pos"
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New post on Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 25, 2018
False Friends: Dependent
Origination and the Perils of Analogy in Cross-Cultural Philosophy
Karin Meyers
Centre for Buddhist Studies
Kathmandu University
Cross-cultural
philosophical inquiry is predicated on the possibility of drawing
analogies between ideas from distinct historical and cultural
traditions, but is distorted and constrained when those analogies are
overdrawn. In considering what Buddhists might have to say about free
will, scholars tend to draw analogies between dependent origination and
distinctively modern naturalistic ideas of universal causation. Such
analogies help promote the idea of Buddhism as a “scientific religion”
and help justify the impulse to naturalize Buddhism (or to simply
ignore its un- or super-natural elements) in order to make it a more
credible conversation partner. By tracing some of the early history of
the idea of dependent origination, this essay discusses how and why
these analogies have been overdrawn. It addresses why this matters to
the inquiry into free will and other cross-cultural philosophical
engagements with Buddhism. With respect to naturalizing Buddhism, it
argues that decisions about what to exclude from serious consideration
(such as karma and rebirth) necessarily influence how we understand
ideas (such as dependent origination) we deem more congenial (and thus
essential), and that by excluding those we do not find congenial, we
foreclose opportunities to submit our own philosophical assumptions to
scrutiny and to be genuinely transformed by our encounter with
Buddhism.
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