Paving the Great Way : Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy / Jonathan Gold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gold, Jonathan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vasubandhu.

Buddhist philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (fourth-fifth century C.E.) is known for his critical contribution to Buddhist Abhidharma thought, his turn to the Mahayana tradition, and his concise, influential Yogacara-Vijñanavada texts. Paving the Great Way reveals another dimension of his legacy: his integration of several seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions, with far-ranging consequences for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra.Most scholars read Vasubandhu's texts in isolation and separate his intellectual development into distinct phases. Featuring close studies of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophy. In Vasubandhu's hands, the Buddha's rejection of the self as a false construction provides a framework through which to clarify problematic philosophical issues, such as the nature of moral agency and subjectivity under a broadly causal worldview. Recognizing this continuity of purpose across Vasubandhu's diverse corpus recasts the interests of the philosopher and his truly innovative vision, which influenced Buddhist thought for a millennium and continues to resonate with today's philosophical issues. An appendix includes extensive English-language translations of the major texts discussed.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1. Summarizing Vasubandhu: Should a Buddhist Philosopher Have A Philosophy?

2. Against the Times: Vasubandhu'S Critique of His Main Abhidharma Rivals

3. Merely Cause and Effect: The Imagined Self and the Literalistic Mind

4. Knowledge, Language, and the Interpretation of Scripture: Vasubandhu'S Opening to the Mahāyāna

5. Vasubandhu's Yogācāra: Enshrining the Causal Line in the Three Natures

6. Agency and the Ethics of Massively Cumulative Causality

Conclusion: Buddhist Causal Framing for the Modern World

Appendix A. Against the Existence of the Three Times

Appendix B. Brief Disproof of the Self

Appendix C. Discussion of "View" (DRSTI)

Appendix D. Against the Eternality of Atoms (Paramāņu)

Appendix E. The Proper Mode of Exposition on Conventional and Ultimate

Appendix F. The Twenty Verses on Appearance and Memory

Appendix G. The Three Natures Exposition

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780231168274

0231168276

9780231538008

0231538006

OCLC:

892244357