Why read Self, No-Self, and Salvation?

Book cover of Self, No-Self, and Salvation: Dharmakirti's Critique of the Notions of Self and Person

Book description

From very early times, Buddhist intellectuals have made the notion of a self-existing over and above the bodily and mental
constituent’s one of their main targets. Their critique first culminates in Vasubandhu’s treatise against the Buddhist personalists
(5th century CE).The eighth-century philosophers Santaraksita and Kamalasila provide another milestone in the…

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Asian history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Self, No-Self, and Salvation as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Siderits

Author

Dharmakīrti is among the most important of the Indian Buddhist philosophers, but he is also one of the most challenging. These two eminent scholars of his tradition bring their expertise to bear in making a central aspect of his thought accessible to non-experts. The Buddhist quest for enlightenment is organized around the task of overcoming the sense of self, the sense of a ‘me’ that is the owner of this life. Eltschinger and Ratié clearly and carefully explain how Dharmakīrti uses philosophical rationality to help us in the task of dissolving that sense.

From Mark's list on Indian Buddhist philosophy.