Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies, Chair of the Philosophy department, and director of the Logic program at Smith College. He is also Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. He has taught in Australia, Singapore, Japan and Germany and is a regular lecturer at major universities, Buddhist Studies centers and research institutions around the world. Professor Garfield is author, co-author, or editor of 30 books and over 180 articles and book reviews.

• Preface


• Part I: Structure


• 1. Methodological Introduction


• 2. The Broad Structure of Buddhist Ethics


• 3. Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology


• 4. Agency and Action Theory


• 5. Narrative in Buddhist Ethics


• Part II: Doctrine


• 6. The Four Noble Truths


• 7. Path as a Structure for Buddhist Ethics


• 8. The Six Perfections and the Bodhisattva Path


• 9. The Brahmavih?ras and the Achievement of Nonegocentricity


• 10. The Importance of Vow


• Part III: Contemporary Issues


• 11. Naturalism


• 12. Engaged Buddhism


• 13. Coda: What Buddhist Ethics Brings to the Table


• References

Buddhist Ethics presents an outline of Buddhist ethical thought. It is not a defense of Buddhist approaches to ethics as opposed to any other, nor is it a critique of the Western tradition. Garfield presents a broad overview of a range of Buddhist approaches to the question of moral philosophy. He argues that while there are important points of contact with these Western frameworks, Buddhist ethics is distinctive, and is a kind of moral phenomenology that is concerned with the ways in which we experience ourselves as agents and others as moral fellows.