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Is Buddhist Karmic Theory False?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

J. E. White
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, St Cloud State University

Extract

In his recent article ‘Notes Towards a Critique of Buddhist Karmic Theory’ Paul J. Griffiths makes four criticisms of Buddhist karmic theory: it is empirically false, it is incoherent, it is morally repugnant, and it is vacuous. After listing these four criticisms, Griffiths concludes that ‘all these mean that Buddhist karmic theory as expounded in the major theoretical works devoted to it must be false’ (p. 291).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

page 223 note 1 Griffiths, Paul J., –Notes Towards a Critique of Buddhist Karmic Theory’, Religious Studies, XVIII, 3 (09 1982), 277–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar References in the text are to this paper.

page 223 note 2 For example, see Gudmunsen, Chris, Wittgenstein and Buddhism (the Macmillan Press, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chapter 5. A similar view is found in Streng, F. J., Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning (Nashville, 1967).Google Scholar

page 225 note 1 Th. Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word ‘Dharma‘ (Delhi, 1970), p. 32.Google Scholar

page 225 note 2 Ibid. p. 31.

page 225 note 3 See, Rahula, WalpolaWhat the Buddha Taught ‘Dharma‘ (Grove Press, 1974), p. 55.Google Scholar

page 226 note 1 Cula-Malunkyd-sutta. This sutra is quoted at length by Rahula, op. cit. pp. 1215.Google Scholar