Abstract
One of the arguments that has been directed against the Buddhist anātman (“non-self”) theory, by Dan Zahavi among others, is that the doctrine cannot account for why we never mistake our own bodies for the bodies of others. This is not, however, a new objection; it can be found, for example, in a list of objections to the anātman doctrine in the Dazhidulun (“Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom”), a medieval compendium attributed to Nāgārjuna and compiled and translated (and perhaps partially authored) by Kumārajīva in the early fifth century. The text offers several responses to this objection, the most interesting of which is the claim that there is indeed an instance of a person experiencing himself as another. We then hear the tale of a young man who went through a “body transplant”—his body is replaced, piece by piece, with that of a corpse. In my chapter, I analyze this amusing but nonetheless illuminating narrative, showing how the story is a classic example of a medieval Buddhist “thought experiment” (Gedankenspiel), which was freely altered by Buddhist authors as it was deployed in different doctrinal/philosophical contexts. I conclude with some reflections on how our approach to such didactic tales affects our understanding and appreciation of Buddhist philosophy writ large.
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Notes
- 1.
It should be noted that the critique of a singular and perduring self has a long history in the West that predates the intervention of cognitive science. Its modern philosophical articulation is associated closely with Derek Parfit (1984), whose analysis of self is often compared with that of the Buddhists.
- 2.
There is a vast literature on the Buddhist anātman theory; for an insightful overview that includes a discussion of both the external (Nyāya) and internal (Pudgalavāda) critiques, see Kapstein (2001: 28–177), as well as the discussions in the chapters by Coseru and Ganeri in this volume.
- 3.
A French translation can be found in Lamotte 1944–80: 2.735–750.
- 4.
- 5.
See esp. the extended discussion in Lamotte 1944–80: 3.viii–xliv, who concludes that the original text likely dates to the early fourth century, as well as the convenient summary in Zacchetti (2015: 190–191).
- 6.
On the various versions of the Aśokāvadāna see Deeg (2009: 12); Lamotte (1958: 261–272); Mukhopadhyaya (1963); Palumbo (2010: 20); Przyluski (1923); Strong (1983); and Wille (2000). Translations of the corpse-man tale from the Chinese versions can be found in Chavannes (1911:72–77); Li (1993: 164–165); Przyluski (1923: 381–382); and Strong (1992: 128–129).
- 7.
Palumbo’s argument is based in part on (1) the dates for the dissemination of the Aśoka legend in China, which is not attested until the late fourth century; (2) the absence of any mention of the text in the more reliable Chu sanzang ji ji 出三藏記集 of 515; (3) the fact that the Lidai sanbao ji attribution appears to be drawn from a lost catalogue, the Jin shi zalu 晉世雜錄, which is itself a likely forgery; and (4) the translation terminology of the Ayuwang zhuan, which is typical of that which became standard only after the circulation of Kumārajīva’s translations in the early fifth century (Palumbo 2010: 20 n.31).
- 8.
For a full discussion see esp. Strong (1992:118–144).
- 9.
On the placing of the counting stick (śalākā) into the cave, which occurs whenever one of Upagupta’s disciples becomes an arhat, see Strong (1992: 141–143).
- 10.
T.2043: 50.165b11-c2; cf. translation in Li (1993: 164–165).
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
Fausbøll 1877: 261–268 (jātaka 51 and its commentary); translation in Chalmers (1895: 128–133). There is some evidence that portions of this story, specifically the incident with the jackals, may be related to northern European folklore (Tawney 1883: 120–121). My thanks to Sean Kerr for bringing this jātaka to my attention.
- 14.
The best known version of the story is found in the twelfth book of the Kathāsaritsāgara compiled by Somadeva in the eleventh century; see the translation in Tawney (1880–84: 2:261–264). The tale was borrowed by Thomas Mann for his 1940 novella “Die vertauschten Köpfe.” Mann’s story, which is set in India, is dedicated to the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer, through whose writings Mann was introduced to the tale. The head-swapping story then returns to India via the play Hayavadana (1971) by the contemporary South Indian playwright Girish Karnad, who knew the story through Mann’s adaptation (Mahadevan 2002). Thanks to Phyllis Granoff for this reference.
- 15.
The use of teleportation in philosophical discussions of identity became popular following the discussion in Parfit (1984: 197 ff.), although he was not the first to come up with the idea. In Parfit’s version, a person travels to Mars via a machine on Earth that scans the traveler’s atomic makeup and relays the information to a machine on Mars that instantly produces an exact replica. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the scanner kills the original person. There are many variants, including ones in which the original is not killed. (Extended discussions of Parfit’s theory can be found in the chapters by Coseru and Ganeri in this volume.) See also Daniel Dennett (1978), who relates an amusing tale in which his brain is removed from his body and placed in a vat; his brain remains connected to his body via radio transmitters, but when his original body is accidentally destroyed it is replaced with that of another.
- 16.
The conceptual quandary is akin to that explored in the “rubber-hand illusion” (Botvinick and Cohen 1998; Tsakiris and Haggard 2005), and “full-body illusion” (Lenggenhager et al. 2007; Blanke and Metzinger 2009). In both cases, a clever experimental setup is used to induce subjects to identify or locate themselves within a surrogate body (or body part) that lies at some remove from their physical bodies.
- 17.
- 18.
T.2121: 53.92c22-93a5 and 241a23-b9.
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Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this paper were delivered at the Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (May 16-18, 2012), at the K.J. Somaiya Centre For Buddhist Studies, University of Mumbai (7th Biennial International Conference on “Cross-Cultural Transmission of Buddhist Texts: Translation, Transliteration and Critical Edition,” December 5-7, 2012), and at National Taiwan University, Taipei (5th International Sheng Yen Education Foundation Conference, June 29, 2014). I would like to thank the organizers of those events, as well as Christian Coseru, Phyllis Granoff, Sean Kerr, Nir Feinberg, Alexander von Rospatt, Elizabeth Horton Sharf, and Evan Thompson for their invaluable comments and suggestions.
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Sharf, R.H. (2023). The Curious Case of the Conscious Corpse: A Medieval Buddhist Thought Experiment. In: Coseru, C. (eds) Reasons and Empty Persons: Mind, Metaphysics, and Morality. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13995-6_7
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