Engaging Buddhism

Garfield's book is a thought provoking and illuminating engagement with (mainly Mahayana) Buddhist thought. The chapters on metaphysics, the self, epistemology and ethics are the most interesting ones ... Another asset of the book is that it moves beyond a mere scholarly discussion of (the history of) Buddhist ideas. Chances are high we will see more books engaging with non-Western thought in the future. Garfield's book is a good example of successfully doing this. This book has been much needed, even if many have not realized the need. Writing from a position of deep engagement with Buddhism and philosophy, Garfield (philosophy, Yale, Smith, and elsewhere) does an excellent job explicating central Buddhist concepts and relating them to Western contemporary and historical philosophical concepts and problems ... Clearly, the book is rich in terms of breadth ... Garfield does an excellent job of balancing rigor, breadth, and depth while bringing together two very different traditions. And he is careful to engage a variety of Buddhist perspectives ... Highly recommended. Choice His valuable new book admirably serves its purpose of helping analytic philosophers understand some of what Buddhists have written about the very questions they study. In fact, Engaging Buddhism goes further, giving strong reasons to believe that contemporary physicalist philosophers of mind could strengthen their positions in important ways by drawing on Buddhist thought and that analytic philosophers more generally can find valuable insights in the Buddhist tradition. This book has many strengths. The writing is crisp, technically precise, yet elegant and engagingaGarfield has done a wonderful service in producing this impressive and intriguing book, which is always interesting and often enjoyable to read and which can open up new philosophical prospects equally well for both long-standing and newly minted students of Buddhist thought. Charles Goodman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online Garfield engages with a wide range of thinkers such as Hume, Kant, and Heidegger, in order to show the relevance of Buddhist thought to the history of philosophy itself. By engaging complex Buddhist thoughts in terms of dialogues relevant to contemporary western philosophy, Garfield takes the initial steps necessary to broaden philosophys global understanding in order to make cross-cultural philosophical study a reality. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal The arguments in Engaging Buddhism are primarily directed toward professional scholars of Western philosophy, but the implications of Garfield's work are far-reaching. His concise presentations of Buddhist views on topics such as interdependence, emptiness, and the mind are useful for any student or practitioner of Buddhism who wishes to understand such topics more deeply and in a broader context. Garfield's discussion of emptiness in the third chapter is particularly useful for the student of Buddhism. Constance Kassor, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly