Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism

by José Ignacio Cabezón

Overview

Taking language as its general theme, this book explores how the tradition of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophical speculation exemplifies the character of scholasticism.

Scholasticism, as an abstract and general category, is developed as a valuable theoretical tool for understanding a variety of intellectual movements in the history of philosophy of religion. The book investigates the Buddhist Scholastic theory and use of scripture, the nature of doctrine and its transcendence in experience, Mahayana Buddhist hermeneutics, the theory and practice of exegesis, and questions concerning the authority of sacred texts. It also deals with the Buddhist Scholastic theory of conceptual thought as the mirror of language, the Scholastic defense of logic and rationality as a method, as well as the role of language in the idealist and nominalist ontologies of the Mahayana. Finally, the author treats the question of ineffability and the silence of the Buddha from a new perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791419007
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	07/01/1994
Series:	SUNY series, Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jose Ignacio Cabezon is Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Iliff School of Theology. He was author of A Dose of Emptiness and editor of Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, both published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Foreword
by Frank E. Reynolds

Introduction

1. Scholasticism

Section I Language and Scripture

2. The Nature of Doctrine: The Buddha's Word and Its Transcendence

3. Hermeneutics: The Truth and Meaning of Scripture

4. Commentary: The Enterprise of Exegesis

5. The Authority of Scripture

Section II Language and Philosophy

6. The Validation of Language and Thought

7. The Defense of Logic

8. Language and Ontology

9. Ineffability and the Silence of the Buddha

10. Conclusion

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Indexes

Editorial Reviews

"Cabezon has made a careful, consistent case for scholasticism as an important approach to the world within Buddhism and as a cross-cultural category worthy of consideration within the field of religious studies, and he has done so by being explicitly comparative. This is, quite simply, one of the most exciting works of East-West comparison I have seen in a long time and, as a work drawing in a comparative manner on the Buddhist tradition, it is virtually unique."—Roger Jackson, Carleton College

From the Publisher

...[T]he book largely succeeds in its primary aim of demonstrating that scholasticism has useful application outside European religious history. But the explication of Buddhist philosophy that it uses to accomplish this aim is sometimes not completely clear or accurate, and this occasionally interferes with its success in achieving its principal goal.
—Journal of Buddhist Ethics

Mark Siderits