Product Description
Discussing The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2011) with Owen Flanagan.
What philosophical insights can we modern folks with our science and naturalism (i.e. inclination against super-natural explanations) glean from Buddhisim? Flanagan says plenty: Buddhism is founded on common human experience (not faith), and we can profitably put Buddhist ethics in dialogue with familiar types of virtue ethics. However, we need to be skeptical of any claims to scientific support the superior happiness of Buddhists.
We kick off with a general assessment of phenomenology and naturalist ethics, and Flanagan provides such a plethora of great insights that the regular PEL crew continued the discussion in Ep. 54. Get more info on the topic and obtain the book. Download Wes's summary of the book.
Listen to the episode preview. Become a PEL Citizen and get your free copy here. Read more about our vintage episodes.
Running Time: 2 hr., 3 min. Recorded: March 15, 2012. Participants: Mark, Wes, Seth, Dylan, Owen Flanagan
As a bonus, your purchase includes high-bitrate mp3 of "A Few Gone Down" from Mark Lint & the Fake Johnson Trio (1998).
John Dolby –
Very interesting, thank you. As an aside, I found it hard to listen to the repeated pronunciation of Buddhism as “Booo-dism” (anyone for a Booo-dweiser beer?) and the Dalai Lama as the “Dolly Lama” (Where did that pronunciation come from? Wouldn’t be so bad if it did not sound offensive).