Carbon-neutrality by 2050 (version of June 2022)
(Originally published on December 15, 2020. This version: June 13, 2022. The latest version can be found here.) In the year before publication of the original version of this article (2020) several governments announced that their countries will be carbon neutral by 2050. (Since then, other countries have joined them, but often with different target years. China and India, the worldās two most populous countries, aim for 2060 and 2070, respectively, for example.) This is a cheap promise, as the target is so far in the future that it doesnāt commit them to do any significant now, but even if...
A Note on the PÄli Canon
(Originally posted on April 27. Major revisions on June 3, 2022.) In chapter 5 of A Buddha Land in This World, I wrote that until the sÅ«tras in the PÄli canon were written down they were recited in periodic meetings of monks, but we have no consistent evidence about the nature, form, and frequency of these meetings, nor about how reliable this process was. However, when I reread this, I wasnāt entirely happy with this sentence because it seems to suggest that I think that oral transmission is the biggest problem for the authenticity of the content of the PÄli...
SotA-R-8: Climate/Society Feedback Model 4 Predicts 3.7Ā°C of Average Global Warming
(This is part 8 of the āStages of the Anthropocene, Revisitedā Series (SotA-R).) (This post was updated on July 28.) ā Earlier this year I found a serious error in the equations I was using to calculate warming due to carbon emissions. As explained in March, this meant that the climate/society feedback models presented in the previous three episodes in this series were all wrong, and thus that I needed to patch up the latest iteration of those models. The result of that āpatching upā is model 4, which is mostly identical to model 3. The only differences are the...
A Buddha Land in This World (New Book)
My new book, A Buddha Land in This World: Philosophy, Utopia, and Radical Buddhism, has just been published. Here is the abstract/back cover blurb: In the early twentieth century, Uchiyama GudÅ, Senoāo GirÅ, Lin Qiuwu, and others advocated a Buddhism that was radical in two respects. Firstly, they adopted a more or less naturalist stance with respect to Buddhist doctrine and related matters, rejecting karma or other supernatural beliefs. And secondly, they held political and economic views that were radically anti-hegemonic, anti-capitalist, and revolutionary. Taking the idea of such a āradical Buddhismā seriously, A Buddha Land in This World: Philosophy,...
COā Emissions and Global Warming ā Have All My Calculations Been Wrong?
Yes. ā Thatās the short answer to the question in the title. An obvious follow up question would then be: By how much? ā Thatās where things gets complicated. There have been quite a few articles in this blog that relied on equations to estimate average global warming. Typically this involves two equations. One estimates atmospheric carbon increases as a function of COā-e emissions. The other estimates average global warming as a function of atmospheric carbon increases. To model things like the feedbacks between climate change and social change as in the ongoing Stages of the Anthropocene, Revisited series, and...
Nan-in and the Professor ā A Western Zen Parable
āA Cup of Teaā is a short Zen story that is quite famous and popular among Western (Zen) Buddhists. Itās a bit of a peculiar story, however, as I hope to make clear in the following. Before we turn to that, letās start with the story itself: Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitorās cup full, and then kept on pouring.The professor watched the [cup] overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. āIt is overfull. No more will go in!āāLike this...
Mythos, Wisdom, and Scavenger Philosophy
According to Karl Jaspers, philosophy arose in the āAxial Ageā as a kind of critical reflection on myth and tradition. Nowadays, there is widespread agreement among historians of ideas that the notion of an āAxial Ageā is itself a myth, but I think that the other part of Jaspersā idea is right, that is, philosophy indeed originates in critical reflection on myth and tradition. This doesnāt mean that this defines the scope and purpose of philosophy, of course ā as a āmatureā discipline, philosophy mostly reflects on itself ā but I believe that reflection on this idea about the origins...
āDo Your Own Researchā
There has been considerable push-back against ādoing your own researchā recently, and Iām not entirely happy with that. Iām aware, of course, that the phrase ādo your own researchā tends to be used by and/or associated with rather delusional people who believe that watching a Youtube video or googling something counts as āresearchā, but pushing back too hard (or in the wrong way) against such silliness risks ending up with the other extreme: elitism and counterproductive conformism. There are (at least) two aspects of ādoing your own researchā and the push-back that are worth paying closer attention to. One has...
On Selfish and Selfless Readings of Buddhist Scripture
In Indian religions and philosophy, mokį¹£a ā the escape from the cycle of death and rebirth (saį¹sÄra) and, thereby, the liberation from suffering (dukkha) ā is (typically) the ultimate goal of (oneās/my/your) life. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other schools of thought disagree about various details ā Buddhists prefer the term nirvÄį¹a instead of mokį¹£a, for example ā but all accept a version of the doctrine that right (non-) action leads to good karma, which leads to better rebirth, and ultimately to mokį¹£a. That ultimate goal is a selfish goal, however ā the ultimate aim of my right (non-) action (regardless...
SotA-R-7: Current Models Predict 4Ā°C of Global Warming
(This is part 7 of the āStages of the Anthropocene, Revisitedā Series (SotA-R).) Important Note (March 3, 2022) Due to a fundamental flaw in models 1, 2, and 3 in this series, the predictions for average global warming in this article are unreliable. Update (May 21, 2022) Model 4 fixes this problem and predicts +3.7Ā°C. Thereās no plausible peaceful path to carbon-neutrality. If thereās one key takeaway from my attempts to model carbon (COā-equivalent) emissions in stage 1 of the anthropocene, itās that. Oh, and thatās it will get hot, of course. Unpleasantly hot. This the fourth in a series...
SotA-R-6: Modeling Carbon Emissions ā New Results, and Thoughts on Further Models
(This is part 6 of the āStages of the Anthropocene, Revisitedā Series (SotA-R).) Important Note (March 3, 2022) Due to a fundamental flaw in models 1, 2, and 3 in this series, the predictions for average global warming in this article are unreliable. Update (May 21, 2022) Model 4 fixes this problem and predicts +3.7Ā°C. As mentioned in the section ālimitations and alternative approachesā of the previous episode in this series, there were a couple of things I wanted to change in the model (i.e. spreadsheet) used to simulate global carbon (COā-equivalent) emissions in stage 1 of the anthropocene. The...
Is āPhilosophyā Racist?
The term āphilosophyā without any adjectives or other qualifications is generally understood to refer to Western philosophy. Introductory philosophy or ethics courses typically donāt pay any attention to non-Western philosophers (or merely drop a name once or twice in an attempt to feign a broader perspective), and one can easily get a philosophy degree without ever seriously engaging with Chinese or Indian philosophy. While there has been some pressure to broaden the scope of āphilosophyā, thus far very little progress has been made in this respect. One might (and should) wonder: What explains this resistance to a more inclusive understanding...