Arthur Schopenhauer, the quintessential philosophical pessimist
A thoughtful reader offered a rejoinder to the conclusion of my recent series on life and meaning. In it he advances an unequivocal pessimism in response to my (qualified) notions of optimism and hope. I reprint it here, edited slightly for brevity. Continue reading Philosophical Pessimism
Standing Buddha statue at the Tokyo National Museum
© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
https://darrellarnold.com/2018/09/02/hindu-and-buddhist-thought-2/
Buddhist Metaphysics
While some strands of Buddhism have very thick metaphysics, there are some forms with an extremely pragmatic orientation and a general focus on practices. Buddhism rejects that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing creator God. Continue reading Buddhist Metaphyics, Epistmology and Ethics
Standing Buddha statue at the Tokyo National Museum
© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
Buddhist philosophy originates with Siddhartha Gautama. The Buddha’s life itself weaves an interesting philosophic narrative. According to tradition, he was born the son of a king in the Magda empire of Ancient India or present-day Nepal. He was raised a prince but eventually turned away from the life of politics that his father had envisaged for him in order to pursue a life of spirituality. Continue reading The Basics of Buddhism
© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
https://darrellarnold.com/2018/09/02/hindu-and-buddhist-thought-2/
Metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta
Metaphysics studies the type of things that exist and includes reflections on ultimate reality … the views of Brahman and the self in Hinduism and the marks of existence in Buddhism, as well as related discussions of the five aggregates are all part … of metaphysics. Reincarnation and karma also can be included in this area of philosophy, as they concern processes to which existent things are subject. Continue reading Hindu Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics
© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission)
The German philosopher Karl Jaspers has characterized the period of the 6th to the 2nd century BCE (before the common era) as the Axial Age. This is a period of the establishment and flourishing of new worldviews that began to replace the polytheistic religious views that were dominant before that time. Continue reading The Basics of Hinduism