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Fazang’s mereology as a model for holism
- Philosophy East and West
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Articles in press, to appear in Philosophy East and West 75.1
- 10.1353/pew.2023.a917048
- Article
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Recently, much attention has been given to Buddhism as a precursor to contemporary holistic theories, and more specifically to the Huayan school’s radical holistic metaphysics (often given the metaphorical name of The Net of Indra), as well as to Huayan’s most elaborate theoretician, Fazang. Nevertheless, contemporary interpretations of Fazang have been weighted by either too strict an adherence to atomistic logic or by unfortunate translations. In this paper, I present new translations of the key passages of Fazang’s The Rafter Dialogue, as well as a philosophical commentary that his departure from atomism. I then proceed to argue that the six characteristics Fazang attributes to a whole that cannot be reduced to its parts are both sufficient and necessary for holism.
Fazang, Huayan metaphysics, Buddhist mereology, Holism