Common threads · 6 books
Read Buddhist philosophy through arguments about persons, experience, and emptiness. Introductory studies come before the more demanding comparisons.
Books, curator notes, and what to read next.
Mark Siderits
Siderits presents Buddhist claims as arguments to assess. Begin with suffering and non-self before moving to competing schools.
Next: Buddhist Thought
Paul Williams and Anthony Tribe
Use this account of Indian Buddhist development to locate disagreements about persons, knowledge, and reality in their historical settings.
Next: Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy
Mark Siderits
Siderits tests reductionist accounts of persons. Ask whether rejecting a substantial self changes responsibility or simply explains it differently.
Next: Empty Words
Jay L. Garfield
Read the essays on emptiness and dependent origination after the introductory works. Test why emptiness is not simple nihilism.
Next: Engaging Buddhism
Jay L. Garfield
Garfield connects Buddhist debates with contemporary philosophy. Compare the arguments without assuming the traditions ask identical questions.
Next: Waking, Dreaming, Being
Evan Thompson
Thompson compares modes of consciousness across philosophy and contemplative traditions. Keep experience reports separate from metaphysical conclusions.
Also includes Buddhism as Philosophy
Perception, reasoning, selfhood, and liberation across selected classical debates. Scholarly guides and a modern Nyaya selection keep the focus on actual arguments.
More paths featuring Evan Thompson
Move from the mind-body split to behavior, biology, neuroscience, and embodied thought. Compare what each explanation has to leave behind.
More Common threads paths
A reading route made on ReadPath.
