University of Chicago Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions

University of Chicago Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions

Amy Levine, Authenticity as Inner Freedom

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Ryan Simonelli, Against Conceptual Svabhāva

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Ryan Simonelli

Teaching Fellow in the Humanities, UChicago

“Against Conceptual Svabhāva”
According to the Madhyamaka tradition in Indian Buddhist Philosophy, all things are empty of “svabhāva,” a term generally translated as “inherent existence” or “own-being.”  One of the basic arguments meant to establish this claim is an argument against the coherence of inherently existing things standing in causal relations to one another.   In this paper, I consider an objection against this view, put forward by Nāgārjuna’s interlocutor in the Vigrahavyāvartanī, according to which an argument of just the same form can be applied to the thesis of emptiness itself.  Though the particular version of this objection presented in the Vigrahavyāvartanī is straightforwardly dealt with by Nāgārjuna, I argue that there is a stronger version of this objection according to which an an argument of the same form can rule out not just events standing in causal relations to other events, but theses standing in inferential relations to other theses, for instance, the thesis of dependent origination ruling out the claim that things have svabhāva.  I argue that the Madhyamika should accept this extended application of the argument, and I articulate an account of conceptual emptiness in response.
 
The workshop will consist of a presentation from Ryan with handouts and a discussion afterward. There is no need to read anything in advance. We hope to see you there!

TUESDAY, May 7th, 5 PM, Swift 207

Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.

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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu) or Taryn Sue (tarynsue@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.

Jessica Zu, Just Awakening: A Yogācāra Research Paradigm in Modern China

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Professor Jessica Zu
Assistant Professor, Religion & EALC, University of Southern California, Dornsife
 
Respondent: Danica Cao
PhD Student, Philosophy of Religions, UChicago Divinity
 
Just Awakening: A Yogācāra Research Paradigm in Modern China
THURSDAY, April 11th, 5PM, Swift 200
 
The workshop will focus on the pre-circulated material selected from Jessica’s book manuscript. It will consist of a short presentation, followed by Danica’s response and general discussion and Q&A. Please find the reading material here (please email us for password).
 
 

Abstract:

This study takes a closer look at the life and work of a key player in the Yogācāra revival in modern China, Lü Cheng (1896–1989). The evidence reveals that, rather than positioning Lü’s Yogācāra in the epistemic silo of ontology or science, Lü’s scholarship is best understood as a new research paradigm. As incisively argued by Egan and Lincoln in 1994, a research paradigm, as a disciplinary construct, interweaves together four main areas of human inquiry: ontology (what things are), epistemology (how do we know), methodology (how to find out), and axiology (what is worth knowing). The book project, Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China, argues that Lü’s Yogācāra research paradigm systematically accentuated Buddhist processual ontology, reformulated imported positivism into a nondualistic transformative epistemology, systemized diffractive analysis into a new methodology, and refashioned Yogācāra karmic theory into an experience-informed, action-oriented moral reasoning. The workshop will closely examine Lü’s transformative epistemology.

Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.

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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu) or Taryn Sue (tarynsue@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.

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Professor David K. Tomlinson
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
Villanova University

      ”The Persistence of Habit: Notes on Some Tantric Engagements with Dharmakīrti “

TUESDAY, March 26th, 5PM, Swift 207
 
The workshop will consist of a presentation followed by discussion and Q&A. Although Professor Tomlinson will read his paper and does not require that participants read it prior to the session, he has kindly made it available here (please email us for password).

Abstract:

Dharmakīrti’s view of yogic perception (yogipratyakṣa) and imaginative cultivation (bhāvanā) has generated a good deal of discussion—in Dharmakīrti’s text-tradition, in the works of its various critics, and in the contemporary study of Buddhist philosophy. It is discussed not infrequently in Buddhist tantric works, too. However, tantric authors’ appeals to yogic perception are at odds with Dharmakīrti’s intentions in important ways. In this paper, I show why this appropriation of Dharmakīrti on yogic perception might be surprising, and then I reveal a tantalizing thread of Dharmakīrtian thinking about imaginative cultivation that nevertheless runs through certain Sanskrit Buddhist tantric debates. What is most crucial about Dharmakīrti for these authors, I argue, is his reasoned defense of cultivation’s power: its capacity to fundamentally and irreversibly transform the practitioner’s cognitive, conative, and experiential habits. I develop this point with reference especially to *Śāntarakṣita’s tantric monograph, the Tattvasiddhi.

Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.

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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu) or Taryn Sue (tarynsue@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.

Xing Hao Wang, Aesthetics as Ethics: Music as Paradigm in Early China

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Xing Hao Wang

MA Student, UChicago Divinity

Respondent: Tyler Neenan

PhD Candidate, Philosophy of Religions, UChicago Divinity

 Aesthetics as Ethics: Music as Paradigm in Early China

 
The workshop will consist of a presentation from Xing Hao and a response from Tyler, after which we will have a discussion. The paper to be read in advance can be accessed here (please email us for password). We hope to see you there!

TUESDAY, February 20th, 5 PM, Swift 207

Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.

_____________

The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu) or Taryn Sue (tarynsue@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.

Abolfazl Ahangari, “A Return to Self: Notes on Ali Shariati’s Philosophy of Religion”

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Abolfazl Ahangari

PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University

Respondent: Arwa Awan

PhD Candidate, Political Science, UChicago

 

A Return to Self: Notes on Ali Shariati’s Philosophy of Religion

The workshop will consist of a presentation from Abolfazl and a response from Arwa, after which we will have a discussion. There chapter to be read in advance can be accessed here (please contact us for password). We hope to see you there!

TUESDAY, February 13th, 5 PM, ZOOM 

(https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/99446784241?pwd=eC9MTzViYStKWVJ0d1VEUC9CVkVGUT09)

Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.

_____________

The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu) or Taryn Sue (tarynsue@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.