Buddhism and Autonomy‐Facilitating Education

Journal of Philosophy of Education 47 (4):509-523 (2013)
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Abstract

This article argues that Buddhists can consistently support autonomy as an educational ideal. The article defines autonomy as a matter of thinking and acting according to principles that one has oneself endorsed, showing the relationship between this ideal and the possession of an enduring self. Three central Buddhist doctrines of conditioned arising, impermanence and anatman are examined, showing a prima facie conflict between autonomy and Buddhist philosophy. Drawing on the ‘two truths’ theory of Nagarjuna, it is then shown that the prima facie conflict can be defused by noting that the self has reality at one level, but is a fiction at another level. This approach allows us a new way of seeing autonomy as an extrinsic value—as a step in the journey towards nirvana, but of no value once one has achieved nirvana

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References found in this work

The Right and the Good. Some Problems in Ethics.W. D. Ross - 1930 - Oxford: Clarendon Press. Edited by Philip Stratton-Lake.
The Demands of Liberal Education.Meira Levinson - 1999 - Oxford University Press UK.
On Education.Harry Brighouse - 2005 - Routledge.
Why Value Autonomy?Thomas Hurka - 1987 - Social Theory and Practice 13 (3):361-382.

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