Engaged Buddhist Practice and Ecological Ethics
Engaged Buddhist approaches to an ecological ethics can be read as a case study of the reinvention of Buddhism within the matrix of Western cultures. Three challenges have been raised to these efforts: first, engaged Buddhists have projected back onto the early Buddhist tradition modern formulations...
| Published in: | Worldviews |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2016
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| In: |
Worldviews
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Environmental crisis
/ The Modern
/ Buddhist philosophy
/ Environmental ethics
/ Effectiveness
/ Criticism
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BL Buddhism NAB Fundamental theology NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Buddhist ethics
ecological ethics
virtue ethics
climate change
bioregional reinhabitation
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Engaged Buddhist approaches to an ecological ethics can be read as a case study of the reinvention of Buddhism within the matrix of Western cultures. Three challenges have been raised to these efforts: first, engaged Buddhists have projected back onto the early Buddhist tradition modern formulations of ancient teachings in particular that of dependent co-arising (pratitya samutpada); second, Buddhists associated with the deep ecology movement have offered a form of holism that is “ethically vacuous;” third, while Buddhist virtue ethics are immune to some of these criticisms, they fail in face of the urgency of the challenge presented by climate change and do not offer a way of addressing entrenched power that impedes action. The article takes up each of these challenges and argues that these Buddhist “Eco-constructivists” perform a midrash on the Buddhist tradition that is geared towards praxis; it offers forms of practice that are hardly ethically vacuous. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5357 |
| Contains: | In: Worldviews
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685357-02002004 |