PHIL4212 · Philosophy

Comparative Philosophy and the Idea of the Self

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This course examines two ideas that seem fundamentally opposed to one another: the reality of the self and the doctrine of no-self. We explore this issue by comparing the ideas of Nishida Kitar and Kimura Bin two modern Japanese philosophers whose work has been shaped by Buddhist thought with the work of Western theorists of the self such as Ulric Neisser, Dan Zahavi, Shaun Gallagher, Evan Thompson, and Dorothe Legrand. Through these comparisons we consider the question of whether it may be possible to reconcile claims about the reality of the self with a particular account of the ontology of selfless states. Satisfies the following distribution requirement(s) for Philosophy: Ethics & Values, Knowledge & Reality.