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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The canonical texts of Early Buddhism describe and explain a way to achieve a goal. What the goal is is not immediately clear; many different descriptions are given of it, and these descriptions can be variously interpreted. It is to some extent easier to find out what is the way to achieve the goal; the texts contain frequently repeated lists of stages on this Way. The best way of starting a consideration of the nature of the goal and its moral status is to examine the most important of these lists.
page 206 note 1 I do not deal in this paper with Buddhist teaching on the layman' morality, though this is certainly worth discussing. The general point of view from which this paper is written is described in my ‘The Principles of the Philosophy of Religion’ (Philosophical Quarterly, July, 1969).
