Tagged: Historical Context
Pages with this tag
Tillemans - Remarks on Philology (2018)
1In a reflection on the practice of philology within Buddhist Studies, Tom Tillemans argues against rigid methodological positions, instead defending the practical goal of understanding an author's thought through deep engagement with their language, history, and context. He counters the critique that philologists naively seek to eliminate all personal bias by suggesting that prejudices can be progressively challenged and refined, allowing for genuine progress in understanding. Tillemans addresses the central tension between interpreting a text "on its own terms" and using modern, author-alien concepts by introducing the logical distinction between *de re* and *de dicto* attributions of thought, which validates interpretations that are true to an author's thinking even if phrased in unfamiliar terms. He concludes by championing the necessity of rigorous, text-based philological work, warning that postmodern pragmatism should not be misused as a license to bypass the demanding but essential task of mastering the linguistic and historical foundations of the texts being studied.
Gombrich, Richard F. - How Buddhism Began (2006)
2Richard F. Gombrich's *How Buddhism Began* argues that the Buddha's original teachings must be understood within their historical context, primarily as a debate with and reaction to contemporary religious ideas, especially those of Brahminism. Gombrich posits that the Buddha was not an essentialist philosopher concerned with 'what' things are, but a pragmatic teacher focused on 'how' they function, notably by reinterpreting concepts like *kamma* from ritual action to intention. The book's other central theme is that subsequent generations of disciples, by taking the Buddha's metaphors and allegories literally, created new doctrines and scholastic distinctions that went far beyond his original, often context-dependent, message. This process is illustrated through analyses of key texts and concepts, such as the development of 'release by insight' as an alternative to meditation and a reinterpretation of the Aṅgulimāla story, suggesting that many apparent inconsistencies in the Pali Canon arose from a failure to appreciate the Buddha's use of skillful means and the specific debates he was engaged in.
Gombrich - What the Buddha Thought (2009)
3In *What the Buddha Thought*, Richard Gombrich argues that the Buddha was a brilliant and original thinker whose coherent system of thought can only be understood by placing it in its historical context as a pragmatic debate with and reaction to contemporary Brahminical and Jain ideas. Gombrich posits that the Buddha was not an essentialist philosopher but a practical teacher focused on how things function, redefining concepts like *kamma* from ritual action to ethical intention and clarifying "no-self" as the absence of an *unchanging* essence. A central thesis is that subsequent generations, failing to grasp the Buddha's use of metaphor, irony, and context-dependent arguments, took his teachings literally, thereby creating new scholastic doctrines—such as misinterpreting the *brahma-vihāras* as a path to heaven rather than nirvana. This process of misinterpretation, Gombrich contends, explains many apparent inconsistencies in the Pali Canon, which he establishes as the key evidence for understanding how the Buddha used fire as a central metaphor for non-random process and satirized Vedic cosmogony in the Chain of Dependent Origination.