Buddha, Socrates, and us : ethical living in uncertain times / Stephen Batchelor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Batchelor, Stephen J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gautama Buddha.

Socrates.

Ethics.

Conduct of life.

Buddhism.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (351 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2025.

Summary:

A renowned Buddhist teacher turns to two of the most influential figures in history for guidance on how to face the ethical challenges of our time The Buddha's revolutionary teachings transformed Asia, and his contemporary Socrates laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Although they never met, Socrates and the Buddha each addressed in a radically new and surprisingly similar way the core questions of how to lead a good, just, and dignified life amid turbulence and violence. Common to their teachings was an ethics of uncertainty: both refused to make truth claims about the ultimate nature of reality, insisting on the primacy of critical self⁰́₁evaluation as the basis of an ethical life. In this illuminating book, best-selling author Stephen Batchelor explores the philosophical, social, and political worlds of the Buddha and Socrates, showing how their teachings continue to provide lessons in how to lead a flourishing and engaged life. Keenly aware of the fickle and conflicted nature of the human mind, Gotama and Socrates inspired their followers to act with humility and courage, risk and resolve, doubt and confidence. Drawing on their insights, and those of their followers, Batchelor uncovers a middle way between Buddhist dharma and Greek philosophy that can serve as a starting point for a "secular faith" that addresses the most pressing spiritual and planetary issues of our age.

Contents:

Prologue: In Search of a Voice

Part I: Agency

1. Life as Practice

2. The Wisest Man in Greece

3. Fraternal Twins

4. Diotima's Middle Way

Part II: Contingency

5. An Unbearable Silence

6. The Socrates Show

7. Whose Buddha? Whose Socrates?

8. Convenient Fictions

Part III: Uncertainty

9. The Quest for Certainty

10. The Tragedy of Being Human

11. A Religion Is Born

12. Nagasena or Nagarjuna?

Part IV: Creativity

13. Refining Gold

14. The Truth of Comedy

15. Ataraxia

16. A Dialogical Self

Part V: Impossible Questions

17. The Foolish and the Wise

18. Only Tragedy Can Save the City

19. The Great Matter of Birth and Death

20. What Is This Thing?

Part VI: Starting All Over Again

21. A Cartography of Care

22. Silencing Socrates

23. A Revaluation of All Values

24. For Love of the World

Part VII: A Worldly Eightfold Path

25. The Parable of the Snake

26. Death by Mortar and Pestle

27. Contemplative Life

28. Active Life

Part VIII: Entering the Stream

29. Lucid Confidence

30. An Ethics of Uncertainty

Afterword

Dramatis Personae.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-322) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0300283075

9780300283075

OCLC:

1523370306