Brains, Buddhas, and Believing
The Problem of Intentionality in Classical Buddhist and Cognitive Scientific Philosophy of Mind
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| Author(s) : Arnold, Dan |
| Publishers Price : £34.50 |
| Wisdom Price : £29.33(save 15%)
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| ISBN : 0231145462 | | EAN : 9780231145466 | | Cover : Hardback | | Pages : 312 | | Size : 236 x 162mm | | Publisher : Columbia University Press | | Published : 2012 |
Category : Philosophy
Category 2 : Western Study of Buddhism
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Synopsis:
In the recent burgeoning discourse on Buddhist thought and cognitive science, premodern Buddhists are sometimes characterized as veritable "mind scientists" whose insights anticipate modern research on the brain and mind. Aiming to complicate this story, Dan Arnold confronts a significant obstacle to popular attempts at harmonizing classical Buddhist and modern scientific thought - since most Indian Buddhists believe that the mental continuum is uninterupted by death (its continuity is what Buddhists mean by "rebirth"), they would have no truck with claims that everything about the mental is explicable with reference to brain events. Yet despite this significant divergence, a predominant stream of Indian Buddhist thought, associated with the seventeeth century thinker Dharmakirti, turns out to be vulnerable to arguments modern philosophers have leveled against physicalism.
By characterizing the philosophical problems commonly faced by Dharmakirti and contemporary philosophers such as Jerry Fodor and Daniel Dennett, Arnold seeks to advance an understanding of both first millennium Indian arguments and contemporary debates in philosophy of mind. The issues centre on what modern philosophers have called intentionality - the fact that the mind can be about (or represent or mean) other things. Tracing an account of intentionality through Kant, Wilfred Sellars, and John McDowell, Arnold argues that intentionality cannot, in principle, be explained in causal terms.
"This is a superb book, and Dan Arnold sets a new standard for contemporary cross-cultural philosophy. He approaches the most important and difficult issues in contemporary philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the foundations of cognitive science through a sustained dialogue with classical Indian Buddhist philosophers, such as Nagarjuna and Dharmakirti, and with contemporary Western philosophers...He addresses both Indian and Western traditions with great erudition and always in the service of a philosophical project prosecuted with uncommon clarity and precision." Prof.Jay Garfield.
"Dan Arnold once again leads us through a brilliant and original exercise in cross-cultural philosophy. He gives a lucid account of the epistemology of the great Indian Buddhist thinker Dharmakirti and then sets him into robust conversation with other philosophers of mind, both Indian and Western, illuminating important issues in Buddhist thought, the philosophy of mind, the study of Buddhism and neuroscience, and the relation between humanistic and scientific inquiry." Prof.Roger Jackson. |
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