Syllabus for Roster(s):

  • 16Sp RELB 5055-001 (CGAS)
In the UVaCollab course site:   16Sp RELB 5055-001 (CGAS)

Course Description (for SIS)

This is a course introducing the subject of Buddhist Philosophy as it developed in Classical India from roughly 200 C.E.-1300 C.E in conversation with multiple traditions of reasoning--that is, as a discipline involving (as a minimum) conceptual analysis and the give and take of reasons and arguments, and worthy of being engaged with philosophically today. Topics of concern for Buddhist philosophers introduced in this course include (but are not restricted to): reductionism about personal identity; mereology; skepticism with respect to identity criteria for things (in the broadest possible sense) and non-realism with respect to truth more generally; the relationship between conventions and theories of the world; the distinction between conceptual and non-conceptual content; the prospect of a nominalist semantics and the prospects for solipsism as a metaphysical, epistemological and methodological claim. This course has no prerequisites, but an introduction to philosophy and / or an introduction to Buddhism will be particularly helpful. This course should be of interest to students of Buddhism, Philosophy (Ancient and Contemporary), Hinduism, South Asia, Theology, and all those interested in the place of reasons in any life worth living.