Buddhists are famous for their thesis that selves do not exist. But if they are right, what would that thesis mean for our apparent sense of self and for ordinary practices involving selves—or at least persons? In Selfless Minds: A Contemporary Perspective on Vasubandhu’s Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 2022), Monima Chadha answers these questions by c ... Show More
Sep 10
Robert A. Wilson, "Kin Matters: Relational Beings in the Fragile Sciences" (Oxford UP, 2026)
What is kinship? This central question in cultural anthropology is standardly answered in terms of culturally constructed relationships that are unconstrained by biological relationships. In Kin Matters: Relational Beings in the Fragile Sciences (Oxford UP, 2026), Robert Wilson p ... Show More
1h 6m
Sep 3
Jonathan Quong, "Political Philosophy: The Puzzle of Legitimate Injustice" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Can laws be unjust and yet remain, in some sense, morally legitimate? In Political Philosophy: The Puzzle of Legitimate Injustice (Princeton UP, 2026), Jonathan Quong considers central issues in political philosophy through the lens of this single question. He explores and evalua ... Show More
1 h
Jul 10
Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Metasemantics studies the foundations of meaning, asking what makes it the case that certain words have the meanings that they do. But what makes metasemantic theories true? This question has been all but ignored in philosophy of language. In this book, Cohnitz and Haukioja addre ... Show More
1h 5m
Aug 2024
Ep. 347: Nyaya Sutra Against Buddhist Skeptics (Part Two)
<p>Mark, Seth, and Dylan now turn to ch. 4 of Dasti/Phillips' <em>Nyaya Sutra: Selections with Early Commentaries</em> about the self. Buddhism famously claims that there is no self, and the Nyaya philosophers respond with both common-sensical arguments (e.g. psychological proper ... Show More
37m 57s
Jul 2023
Zhihua Yao, "Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There is Not" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Can we know what there is not? Zhihua Yao's Nonexistent Objects in Buddhist Philosophy: On Knowing What There is Not (Bloomsbury, 2020) examines the historical development of the concept of the cognition of nonexistent objects in several major Buddhist philosophical schools. Begi ... Show More
1h 1m
Sep 2011
David McMahan, “The Making of Buddhist Modernism” (Oxford UP, 2008)
For many Asian and Western Buddhists today, Buddhism means meditation and an embrace of the world’s interdependence. But that’s not what it meant to Buddhists in the past; most of them never meditated and often saw interdependence (or dependent origination) as something fearful t ... Show More
56m 15s
Jun 2020
Alan Watts - Philosophy & Society - The Veil of Thoughts - The Modern Day Zen Buddhists & Philosophers Battle
Alan Watts - Far Beyond the West - Modern Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy, Zen, Buddhism, Hindu Philosophy, Tao, Taoism
Alan Watts provides insights into how to break through this veil that holds us back & does so in an easy to comprehend, yet profound manner.
Watts discusses the ... Show More
52m 57s
Feb 2021
Buddhist Enlightenment: Impermanence, No Self, and the Dark Night of the Soul
<p>Breht is joined by Dr. Daniel M. Ingram, author of "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha", to discuss what Enlightenment is in the Buddhist tradition, what it feels like from the inside, what it can and cannot offer the individual and society, spirituality and mysticism ... Show More
1h 37m
Feb 2022
Richard Payne, ed., "Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition" (Shambhala, 2021)
A timely essay collection on the development and influence of secular expressions of Buddhism in the West and beyond. How do secular values impact Buddhism in the modern world? What versions of Buddhism are being transmitted to the West? Is it possible to know whether an interpre ... Show More
56m 48s
May 2022
#282 — Do You Really Have a Self?
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sam Harris speaks with Jay Garfield about the illusion of the self. They discuss the default sense of subjectivity, the difference between absolute and conventional truth, interdependence, free will, subject-object duality, emptiness, the "mind- ... Show More
54m 13s