Path as a Structure for Buddhist Ethics

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190907631.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 90-108

Author(s):

Jay L. Garfield

Keyword(s):

Buddhist Ethics ◽

Buddhist Literature ◽

Moral Phenomenology

This chapter examines the use of the path metaphor in Buddhist ethics, connecting it to the emphasis on moral phenomenology and to the particularism of Buddhist ethics. It discusses how the concept of a path is used in Buddhist literature, in both the internal and external sense, as well as how these paths may be both followed and cultivated by practitioners. Various uses of this metaphor are addressed throughout the chapter, as well as the objectives and methods associated with each. Discussion includes the eightfold path, the path of purification, the graduated path, the bodhisattva path, and the tantric path.

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Buddhist Ethics

10.1093/oso/9780190907631.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jay L. Garfield

Keyword(s):

Moral Philosophy ◽

Buddhist Philosophy ◽

Ethical Reflection ◽

Buddhist Ethics ◽

Ethical Thought ◽

Buddhist Literature ◽

Contemporary World ◽

Moral Phenomenology ◽

Distinct Approach ◽

The Way

This volume is one of a series of monographs on Buddhist philosophy for philosophers. It presents an outline of Buddhist ethical thought, presenting Buddhist ethical reflection as a distinct approach, or rather set of approaches, to moral philosophy. The book draws on a range of Buddhist philosophers to exhibit the internal diversity of the tradition as well as the lineaments that demonstrate its overarching integrity. This includes early Pāli texts, medieval Indian commentarial literature and philosophical treatises, Tibetan commentaries and treatises, and contemporary Buddhist literature. It argues that Buddhist ethics is best understood not as a species of any Western ethical tradition, but instead as a kind of moral phenomenology, and that it is particularist in its orientation. The book addresses both methodological and doctrinal issues and concludes with a study of the way that Buddhist ethical thought is relevant in the contemporary world.

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The Broad Structure of Buddhist Ethics

10.1093/oso/9780190907631.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 18-28

Author(s):

Jay L. Garfield

Keyword(s):

Virtue Theory ◽

Buddhist Ethics ◽

Ethical Thought ◽

Moral Agents ◽

Moral Phenomenology ◽

Deontological Theory ◽

Consequentialist Theory ◽

Broad Structure ◽

The Way

This chapter argues that Buddhist ethics does not fit into any of the standard Western metaethical theories. It is neither an instance of a virtue theory, nor of a deontological theory, nor of a consequentialist theory. It is closer to a sentimentalist theory, but different from those as well. Instead, it defends a reading of Buddhist ethics as a moral phenomenology and as particularist, utilizing casuistic reasoning. That is, Buddhist ethics is concerned primarily with the transformation of experience, of the way we perceive ourselves and other moral agents and patients. This chapter also argues that the metaphor of path structures Buddhist ethical thought.

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Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology

10.1093/oso/9780190907631.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 29-42

Author(s):

Jay L. Garfield

Keyword(s):

Moral Experience ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Buddhist Ethics ◽

Moral Self ◽

Moral Phenomenology ◽

Buddhist Practice ◽

The World ◽

The Way

This chapter explains Buddhist ethics as moral phenomenology, that is, as a theory of the transformation of our moral experience of ourselves, others, and the world. It compares Buddhist “input ethics” to Western “output ethics” and explains how Buddhist practice aims at developing a less pathological, less egocentric view of our place in the world by cultivating a sense of interdependence. The discussion is grounded in Śāntideva’s Bodhicāryāvatāra, and explores his insights on anger, aversion, vice, and generosity. Śāntideva argues for the importance of developing our moral self-awareness, and changing the way we view suffering, both of ourselves and others.

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