Buddhism and Metaphysics: A Comparison of Chinese and Western Philosophy

Authors

  • He Xirong Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Abstract

Under the influence of Western philosophy, there arose the question of whether Buddhism can be considered a philosophy. In trying to address a similar problem in the field of Chinese philosophy, some scholars have turned the comparison of the texts of Chinese and Western philosophy for appreciating the different ways of doing philosophy. If we use this same approach in observing Buddhism, it turns out that, as a kind of metaphysics, Indian Buddhism shares many aspects with Chinese philosophy, in terms of origin, its ideas concerning transcendence and practice. This approach also helps to account for the spread of Buddhism in China and the absorption of Buddhism into Chinese philosophy. Understanding this process is important for the development of Buddhism in the future and the renewing of the notion of philosophy as well.

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