Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CHINBUDDHPHIL (The Ethics of Empty Beliefs: Chinese Buddhist Philosophy in the ‘Period of Disunity’)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-07-01 do 2025-12-31
Is it ethical to believe? Does believing necessarily entail ethically suspect metaphysical commitments? And if so, can one suspend all one’s beliefs?
Entitled The Ethics of Empty Beliefs: Chinese Buddhist Philosophy in the ‘Period of Disunity’, this research project explores these and related questions by reconstructing what is a hitherto largely unstudied yet highly original philosophical conception of how belief relates to ethical action.
Disciplinarily, this research is located at the multiple intersections among Buddhist studies, Asian studies, religious studies, and philosophy. Substantively, it focuses on systematic study of the foundationally important yet unduly neglected Sanlun or Three Treatise school of Chinese Buddhist philosophy. Sanlun was indubitably of major importance in the history of Chinese Buddhism over the course of the seminal ‘Period of Disunity’ between the fall of the Han dynasty (220) and the dawn of the Tang (618)—which was to become the unrivalled golden age of Chinese culture and cosmopolitanism. During this period of Sanlun’s efflorescence, Buddhism as a whole was revolutionized—with the rise of the epochally transformative Mahayana movement—from newcomer in China to major cultural force.
This research aims to be the first comprehensive elaboration of Sanlun Buddhist philosophy in any Western language. It places Sanlun in conversation with its Indian antecedents in the form of the pivotally important Madhyamaka school, its later elaborations within Chinese Buddhism, and its analogues in contemporary Western philosophy.
Furthermore, by deliberately integrating modern and pre-modern sources in East-Asian as well as South-Asian and European languages, the project aims to redress the exclusion of specifically Chinese perspectives from philosophically-oriented scholarship in Buddhist studies. And by treating the Chinese Buddhist Sanlun school seriously as a coherent system of thought comprising metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and ethics, it aims to both augment the scholarly understanding of philosophically valuable non-Western textual traditions and advance the surge of literature over recent decades deliberately concerned to counter the prevalence of exclusively Western perspectives in philosophy.
Entitled The Ethics of Empty Beliefs: Chinese Buddhist Philosophy in the ‘Period of Disunity’, this research project explores these and related questions by reconstructing what is a hitherto largely unstudied yet highly original philosophical conception of how belief relates to ethical action.
Disciplinarily, this research is located at the multiple intersections among Buddhist studies, Asian studies, religious studies, and philosophy. Substantively, it focuses on systematic study of the foundationally important yet unduly neglected Sanlun or Three Treatise school of Chinese Buddhist philosophy. Sanlun was indubitably of major importance in the history of Chinese Buddhism over the course of the seminal ‘Period of Disunity’ between the fall of the Han dynasty (220) and the dawn of the Tang (618)—which was to become the unrivalled golden age of Chinese culture and cosmopolitanism. During this period of Sanlun’s efflorescence, Buddhism as a whole was revolutionized—with the rise of the epochally transformative Mahayana movement—from newcomer in China to major cultural force.
This research aims to be the first comprehensive elaboration of Sanlun Buddhist philosophy in any Western language. It places Sanlun in conversation with its Indian antecedents in the form of the pivotally important Madhyamaka school, its later elaborations within Chinese Buddhism, and its analogues in contemporary Western philosophy.
Furthermore, by deliberately integrating modern and pre-modern sources in East-Asian as well as South-Asian and European languages, the project aims to redress the exclusion of specifically Chinese perspectives from philosophically-oriented scholarship in Buddhist studies. And by treating the Chinese Buddhist Sanlun school seriously as a coherent system of thought comprising metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and ethics, it aims to both augment the scholarly understanding of philosophically valuable non-Western textual traditions and advance the surge of literature over recent decades deliberately concerned to counter the prevalence of exclusively Western perspectives in philosophy.
There are two major objectives of the research project. The substantive objective is to comprehensively reconstruct and describe the Sanlun Buddhist philosophical system. This, however, cannot be dissociated from a corollary and equally important disciplinary objective; that is, to inaugurate the methodical study of Chinese Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Indian and Western analogues. These objectives are pursued through: a) the recruitment of three research-oriented team members in addition to the Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Manager, b) the organization of three specialist conferences, c) the completion and publication of three edited books based on these conferences, and d) research culminating in lectures and research papers, peer-reviewed scholarly articles, and research monographs.
These objectives have been achieved within the first two years of the project as follows:
Regarding a), all three team members (two Postdocs and one PhD student) have been recruited.
Regarding b), the first conference, ‘Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun’, was held in August 2024 and included eleven speakers. The second conference, ‘Chinese Buddhist Philosophy: From Three Treatises to Five Schools’, has been organized and is scheduled to be held in August 2025; this includes tweny-one speakers. A third conference, ‘Philosophies of Belief: Chinese Buddhist and Western Perspectives’ is slated—as planned—for later in the project.
Regarding c), the first conference has successfully issued in the completion and submission for publication of a book, Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction by PI and PhD as well as a research chapter each by PI and Postdoc A. The second conference is likewise scheduled to issue in a book (now in progress): Chinese Buddhist Philosophy: From Three Treatises to Five Schools. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction by PI and PhD as well as a research chapter each by Postdoc A and PhD.
Regarding d), given the project research is directly relevant to philosophy of religion, and given that the project aims both to add to the scholarly understanding of philosophically valuable non-Western textual traditions and to advance the surge of literature in academic philosophy over recent decades deliberately concerned with countering the prevalence of exclusively Western perspectives in philosophy, a further project output has been prepared in the form of a book, The Three Jewels: Essaying Buddhist Philosophy of Religion, devoted to Buddhist philosophy of religion. This book has been successfully completed and submitted for publication. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction and a research chapter by PI.
In addition to the aforementioned books edited by the PI and the contributions by project members therein, the PI has published a peer-reviewed article, and several other research outputs in the form of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by project members have been completed and are now forthcoming for publication.
Substantial progress has also been made on the research monographs stemming from the project research, such that these remain on course for completion within the project period.
Finally, project members have given numerous invited lectures and conference presentations at which project-related research was disseminated.
These objectives have been achieved within the first two years of the project as follows:
Regarding a), all three team members (two Postdocs and one PhD student) have been recruited.
Regarding b), the first conference, ‘Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun’, was held in August 2024 and included eleven speakers. The second conference, ‘Chinese Buddhist Philosophy: From Three Treatises to Five Schools’, has been organized and is scheduled to be held in August 2025; this includes tweny-one speakers. A third conference, ‘Philosophies of Belief: Chinese Buddhist and Western Perspectives’ is slated—as planned—for later in the project.
Regarding c), the first conference has successfully issued in the completion and submission for publication of a book, Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction by PI and PhD as well as a research chapter each by PI and Postdoc A. The second conference is likewise scheduled to issue in a book (now in progress): Chinese Buddhist Philosophy: From Three Treatises to Five Schools. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction by PI and PhD as well as a research chapter each by Postdoc A and PhD.
Regarding d), given the project research is directly relevant to philosophy of religion, and given that the project aims both to add to the scholarly understanding of philosophically valuable non-Western textual traditions and to advance the surge of literature in academic philosophy over recent decades deliberately concerned with countering the prevalence of exclusively Western perspectives in philosophy, a further project output has been prepared in the form of a book, The Three Jewels: Essaying Buddhist Philosophy of Religion, devoted to Buddhist philosophy of religion. This book has been successfully completed and submitted for publication. In addition to being edited by the PI, this book contains an Introduction and a research chapter by PI.
In addition to the aforementioned books edited by the PI and the contributions by project members therein, the PI has published a peer-reviewed article, and several other research outputs in the form of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by project members have been completed and are now forthcoming for publication.
Substantial progress has also been made on the research monographs stemming from the project research, such that these remain on course for completion within the project period.
Finally, project members have given numerous invited lectures and conference presentations at which project-related research was disseminated.
Disciplinarily, this research is located at the multiple intersections among Buddhist studies, Asian studies, religious studies, and philosophy. The multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of the project research has been forcefully evinced by the fact that not only have team members presented project-related research at multiple venues—both nationally and internationally—but these have straddled precisely the disciplinary fields stated. Moreover, the novelty of method and theoretical approach to Chinese Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist philosophy of religion embodied in the book-length project outputs already completed and submitted for publication—that is, Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun and The Three Jewels: Essaying Buddhist Philosophy of Religion—is evinced by the fact that the former aims to fill a substantial gap in current scholarship by unearthing and evaluating Chinese Sanlun’s distinctive contributions to and elaborations on Indian Madhyamaka, while the latter aims to constitute a major advance in cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary philosophy of religion by including critical interventions in the field from Buddhist premises and paradigms alongside substantially new treatments of perennial questions from Buddhist sources.
Naturally, the project is ongoing, and much further work remains to be done, both in terms of research and in its publication and dissemination. Team members look forward to completing this work over the remaining three years of the project.
Naturally, the project is ongoing, and much further work remains to be done, both in terms of research and in its publication and dissemination. Team members look forward to completing this work over the remaining three years of the project.