Western Buddhism as an Immature Tradition
There are Buddhisms for all four cardinal directions: Southern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, Eastern Buddhism, and Western Buddhism. Southern Buddhism is the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. The term โNorthern Buddhismโ either covers everything else, or only refers to the Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Mongolia. In the latter case, Eastern Buddhism is the Buddhism found in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam. In the two-way North/South distinction, India is part of Northern Buddhism. In the three-way North/South/East distinction, on the other hand, India is missing, indicating that this isnโt a classification of historical Buddhisms. However, while Buddhism...
Mythos, Wisdom, and Scavenger Philosophy
According to Karl Jaspers, philosophy arose in the โAxial Ageโ as a kind of critical reflection on myth and tradition. Nowadays, there is widespread agreement among historians of ideas that the notion of an โAxial Ageโ is itself a myth, but I think that the other part of Jaspersโ idea is right, that is, philosophy indeed originates in critical reflection on myth and tradition. This doesnโt mean that this defines the scope and purpose of philosophy, of course โ as a โmatureโ discipline, philosophy mostly reflects on itself โ but I believe that reflection on this idea about the origins...
A Right to Hate?
In August, French blogger Pauline Harmange published a booklet titled Moi les hommes, je les dรฉteste (Me, men, I loathe them), which caused quite a stir in France (and a little bit outside France as well). The book โ supposedly โ is a protest against misogyny (hatred of women), by taking up the opposite point of view of misandry (hatred of men). โSupposedlyโ, because Iโm not sure exactly about the bookโs arguments as it is no longer available and I have thus been unable to read it. In any case, it is not this book itself that is the topic...
Death, Masculinity, and Hegemony
โAt the center of the symbolic order is the abhorrence of death,โ writes Odile Strik in the conclusion of her short essay The Symbolic Order of Life and Manhood. The โsymbolic orderโ of the title connects death and masculinity, and (supposedly) structures the way most people understand reality. The essay is terse and almost poetic, and only presents a rough sketch of this symbolic order, but it deals with a number of important themes โ such as masculinity, life and death, and cultural hegemony โ and it deserves credit for bringing those themes together. This article is a (long) commentary...