Online research in philosophy

A Pluralistic Universe is America's favourite philosopher's last complete work before he died in 1910. Nevertheless, it has been somewhat neglected as a final self-reckoning. Indeed the term "pragmatism" occurs pretty rarely in it, while "experience" and "pluralism" abound. As introduced and annotated by H.G. Callaway, the Cambridge Scholars edition offers some valuable background on James and the text itself, particularly for the nonspecialist reader. Besides retaining James's notes, Callaway has also provided his own glosses on important philosophical terms, translations (...) of the foreign phrases James so often fell back on, and an expanded index and new bibliography to the text. It is, as Callaway says, a "reading and study edition" (ix). (shrink)

Orientalism and Religion offers us a timely discussion of the implications of contemporary post-colonial theory for the study of religion. Drawing on a variety of post-structuralist and post-colonial thinkers, including Foucault, Gadamer, Said, and Spivak, Richard King examines the way in which notions such as mysticism, religion, Hinduism and Buddhism are taken for granted, and shows us how religion needs to be redescribed along the lines of cultural studies.

Contemporary accounts of early Mah y na Buddhist schools like the Madhyamaka and the Yog c ra tend to portray them as generally antithetical to the Abhidharma of non-Mah y na schools such as the Therav da and the Sarv stiv da. This paper attempts to locate early Yog c ra philosophical speculation firmly within the broader context of Abhidharma debates. Certain key Yog c ra concepts such as layavij na, vij apti-m trat and citta-m tra are discussed insofar as (...) they relate to pre-existing concepts and issues found in the Vaibh sika and Sautr ntika schools, with specific reference to the Abhidharmakośa and the corresponding bh sya of Vasubandhu. Finally, some remarks are made about the, benefits of approaching the history of religious ideas without the benefits and distortions of hindsight, particularly as this relates to the attribution of an idealistic position to the early Yog c ra literature. (shrink)