Course Overview

Is the world really as it appears to be in everyday experience, or is the world of everyday experience really a world of mere appearances, radically unlike the reality that lies behind it? This is arguably the most fundamental philosophical question that one can ask, and it has occupied a central place in perhaps every philosophical tradition that has arisen across the globe. In this class, we will consider how this question arises across two distinct philosophical traditions—Classical and Modern European Philosophy, on the one hand, and Classical Indian philosophy, on the other—seeking to compare and contrast the different philosophical impulses, approaches, and answers to this question across these traditions. We’ll primarily concern ourselves with the existence and nature of two sorts of things: (1) material objects, such as tables and chairs, and (2) persons or “selves,” such as you or me. Historical readings will be from key figures in the different philosophical canons, such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Hume, and Kant in Europe, and Vasubandhu, Dharmakīrti and Nāgārjuna  Candrakīrti, and Śaṅkara in India. Historical readings will be supplemented by works by contemporary philosophers. pdf of syllabus.

Class 1: Introduction
Class 2: Two Truths in Contemporary Scientific Thought
Class 3: The Two Truths in Early Indian Buddhism, and the Buddhist Theory of No-Self
Class 4: Vasubandhu and Dharmakirti - The Refined Metaphysics of Impermanence 
Class 5: Hume's Empiricism and View on the Self
Class 6: Hume on Causation
  • Main Reading: 
    • ​Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sections 4, 5, and 7
  • ​Optional Secondary Reading
    • ​Stroud, Hume, Chapters 3 and 4
  • Class 6 Handout
  • Class 6 Recording

Class 7: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti on Causation ​​
Class 8: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti on Substance
  • Main Readings (Once again, Siderits and Katsura commentary is optional)
    • ​Nāgārjuna, MMK - Chapters 5, 15, and 22
    • Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara - Chapter 6, lines 171-226
  • ​Optional Primary Commentaries
    • ​Candrakirti's Commentary on MMK 15 (Lucid Exposition, Chapter 13)
    • Tsongkhapa's Commentary on MMK 5
    • Tsongkhapa's Commentary on MMK 15
  • ​Optional Secondary Reading
    • Westerhoff - Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, Ch 1
  • ​Optional Supplementary Reading
    • ​Priest and Garfield - Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought
    • Smith - Snakes And Ladders, Therapy As Liberation​
  • Class 8 Handout
  • Class 8 Recording
​
Class 9: Kant's Transcendental Idealism 
  • Main Readings 
    • Kant, Prolegomena - Preface
    • Kant - Critique of Pure Reason, Preface to the Second Edition
  • Optional Further Reading from Kant
    • ​Kant - Critique of Pure Reason, On the Distinction between Phenomena and Noumena.pdf
  • ​Optional Secondary Reading
  • ​Class 9 Handout
  • Class 9 Recording
      
Class 10: Kant on Substance and Causation
  • Main Reading
    • ​Kant - Prolegomena, How Is Pure Natural Science Possible
  • ​Optional Further Reading from Kant
    • ​Kant - Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Analytic - First Chapter
    • Kant - Critique of Pure Reason, First and Second Analogy
  • ​Class 10 Handout
  • Class 10 Recording
      
Class 11: Vasubandhu's Cittamātra: the Three Natures  Class 12: Vasubandhu's Cittamatra: the Three Naturelessnesses 
  • Main Readings
    • ​Samdhinirmochana Sutra - Chapter 7
    • Vasubandhu - Commentary on the Separation of the Middle from Extremes, I
  • ​Optional Secondary Reading
    • ​Garfield - Three Natures and Three Naturelessnesses

Optional Offshoot: Candrakīrti's Critique of Yogācāra
  • Main Reading
    • ​Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara - Chapter 6, lines 43-97
  • ​Optional Secondary Reading
    • ​Westerhoff, Candrakirti's Madhayamakavatara

Class 13: The Two Truths in Plato 
Class 14: Aristotle on the Divine  Class 15: Plotinus's Monism 
  • Main Readings
    • ​Plotinus - Enneads 6.5  
      Plotinus - Enneads 6.9
  • ​Optional Background Reading
    • ​Porphyry - On the Life of Plotinus
  • ​Class 15 Handout
  • Class 15 Recording

Class 16:  Śaṅkara's Advaita Vedanta 
  • Main Reading
    • Sankara, Upadesasahasri - Prose Part, Chapter 2
  • Optional Background Reading (Upanishads)
    • ​Taittiriya Upanisad, Ch. 2 and 3  
  • Optional Comparative Reading
    • ​Swami Krishnananda - On Plotinus
  • ​Class 16 Handout
  • Class 16 Recording

Class 17: Śaṅkara's Advaita Vedanta, Continued
  • Main Readings
    • Sankara, Upadesasahasri - Metrical Part, Chapter 17
  • ​Optional Background Reading
    • Zimmer - Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, Chapter 2 excerpt
  •  Optional Secondary Reading
    • ​Deutsch - Advaita Vedanta, Chapters 1, 3, and 4
  • ​Optional Fun Short Metaphor
    • ​Alan Watts - The Book, Short Excerpt
  • ​Class 17 Handout
  • Class 17 Recording

Class 18: Comparing Madhyamaka and Advaita Vedanta (and Class Wrap Up)