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Metaphysics: Indian Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2000.First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
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127Indigenous rights and environmental justiceEnvironmental Ethics 20 (4): 377-391. 1998.The modern environmental movement has a tradition of respect for indigenous cultures and many environmentalists believe that there are important ecological lessons to be learned from studying the traditional life styles of indigenous peoples. More recently, however, some environmentalists have become more sceptical. This scepticism has been sharpened by current concerns with the cause of indigenous rights. Indigenous peoples have repeatedly insisted on their rights to pursue traditional practice…Read more
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19Dialogue at the Margins: Whorf, Bakhtin, and Linguistic Relativity (review)Philosophy and Literature 16 (2): 376-378. 1992.
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102The momentariness of simplesPhilosophy 79 (3): 435-445. 2004.Many philosophers have supposed that while most of the objects in our immediate experience are composed of parts, at some point we must come down to those fundamental impartite objects out of which all partite things are composed: the metaphysical simples (usually conceived of as enduring, even eternal, entities). I consider what reason we have to believe that there really are simples, then we also have good reason to believe in their momentariness.
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73Future generations and the metaphysics of the self: Western and indian philosophical perspectivesAsian Philosophy 13 (1). 2003.Our present actions can have effects on future generations - affecting not only the environment they will inherit, but even perhaps their very existence. This raises a number of important moral issues, many of which have only recently received serious philosophical attention. I begin by discussing some contemporary Western philosophical perspectives on the problem of our obligations to future generations, and then go on to consider how these approaches might relate to the classical Indian philos…Read more
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41Rebirth: ROY W. PERRETTReligious Studies 23 (1): 41-57. 1987.Traditional Western conceptions of immortality characteristically presume that we come into existence at a particular time , live out our earthly span and then die. According to some, our death may then be followed by a deathless post-mortem existence. In other words, it is assumed that we are born only once and die only once; and that – at least on some accounts – we are future-sempiternal creatures. The Western secular tradition affirms at least ; the Western religious tradition – Christianity…Read more
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72Computationality, mind and value: The case of sāmkhya-yogaAsian Philosophy 11 (1). 2001.Associated with the successful development of computer technology has been an increasing acceptance of computational theories of the mind. But such theories also seem to close the gap between ourselves and machines, threatening traditional notions of our special value as non-physical conscious minds. Prima facie, Sāmkhya-Yoga - the oldest school of classical Indian philosophy, with its dualism between purusa ('self', 'consciousness') and prakrti ('nature', 'matter') - seems a case in point. Howe…Read more
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4Philosophy of Religion: Indian Philosophy (edited book)Routledge. 2000.First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
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78Truth, relativism and western conceptions of indian philosophyAsian Philosophy 8 (1). 1998.We (relatively few) Western analytic philosophers who also work on classical Indian philosophy commonly encounter puzzlement or suspicion from our colleagues in Western philosophy because of our Indian interests. The ubiquity of these attitudes is itself revealing of Western conceptions of Indian philosophy, though their origins lie in cultural history often unknown to those who hold them. In the first part of this paper I relate a small but significant slice of that history before going on to d…Read more
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21Indigenous language rights and political theory: The case of te reo māoriAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (3). 2000.This Article does not have an abstract
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96Evil and Human NatureThe Monist 85 (2): 304-19. 2002.One familiar philosophical use of the term ‘evil’ just contrasts it with ‘good’, i.e., something is an evil if it is a bad thing, one of life’s “minuses.” This is the sense of ‘evil’ that is used in posing the traditional theological problem of evil, though it is customary there to distinguish between moral evils and natural evils. Moral evils are those bad things that are caused by moral agents; natural evils are those bad things that are not caused by moral agents. Since the existence of evils…Read more
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102Buddhism, euthanasia and the sanctity of lifeJournal of Medical Ethics 22 (5): 309-13. 1996.Damien and John Keown claim that there is important common ground between Buddhism and Christianity on the issue of euthanasia and that both traditions oppose it for similar reasons in order to espouse a "sanctity of life" position. I argue that the appearance of consensus is partly created by their failure to specify clearly enough certain key notions in the argument: particularly Buddhism, euthanasia and the sanctity of life. Once this is done, the Keowns' central claims can be seen to be eith…Read more