Contest, game, disgrace: on philosophy and Buddhism

Abstract

Philosophers are an argumentative bunch. Indeed, they pride themselves on it, even going so far as to define philosophy precisely in terms of argument, contestation, and critique. So presumably philosophers should not in the least mind if in this article I pick an argument—two, in fact—with the contemporary practice of philosophy itself. In the section titled “Playing at Arguments: On Buddhism as Philosophy,” I argue against the exclusion of Buddhist philosophy specifically, and other non-Western philosophies more generally, from the domain of philosophy—or rather, against the very game of exclusion itself. In the final section, I argue against excusing philosophers engaged in this game of a charge they (or at least the vast majority of them) will presumably deem unjustified: that of racism. This is, therefore, not so much a philosophical study of Buddhist materials as it is a (meta-) philosophical critique of the manner in which the philosophical study of Buddhist (and other non-Western) philosophical materials is (not) being conducted. The thread linking my two main arguments is thus the role of non-Western philosophies within the profession/discipline of philosophy as this is professed and practiced today.