Special Topics In Buddhist Philosophy

Buddhist Philosophy is extremely diverse, changing over its 2500 year history and adapting it has spread across cultures. HY4115 Special Topics in Buddhist Philosophy provides an in depth examination of a specific theme, problem, time period, or school of Buddhist philosophy. The course will involve close readings of primary texts and discussion and analysis of philosophical issues. Possible topics include Chan and Zen Buddhism (the topic that will be offered in Semester 1 2016), Buddhist arguments against the self, Buddhism in China, Yogacara Buddhism, and so on. This course will consist of the close reading and discussion of primary texts (in translation) of the Chan/Zen Buddhism of China and Japan, with a few secondary descriptions of Zen institutions and cultural influences. This will be done both with an eye to the historical development of these schools of thought and practice within the context of East Asian Buddhism in general, and as a way of considering the philosophical issues raised by those texts. The course will begin with readings that set the background for the rise of Chan philosophy and will then examine the key schools of Chan and Zen and the philosophical disagreements between them.