{"title":"What Are Self-Cultivation Philosophies?","authors":"C. Gowans","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter defines the concept of a self-cultivation philosophy. This proposes that human beings can and should move from a troubled state of existence to some ideal state of being via spiritual exercises guided by some philosophical analysis. Philosophy is defined as a reflective practice that seeks understanding of fundamental assumptions in our life. Philosophy may be a practical discipline or a theoretical one, and it may be based on whatever cognitive capacities human beings possess, including reason and awareness. This claim is defended by reference to virtue epistemology. Self-cultivation philosophy has a four-part structure: an account of human nature, an existential starting point, an ideal state of being, and a transformation program. The transformation program consists of exercises which have four functions: Cognition, Purification, Doctrine, and Habituation. Self-cultivation philosophies are often expressed in transformational texts intended to guide people in how to live their lives according to the philosophy","PeriodicalId":294027,"journal":{"name":"Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China","volume":"122 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124246040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Indian Buddhism","authors":"C. Gowans","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter argues that the teaching of the Buddha, Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga, and Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra are each plausibly interpreted as self-cultivation philosophies. For each, the existential starting point is that we are caught in a cycle of rebirth permeated by suffering caused by craving, something rooted in the delusion that we are selves or have an intrinsic nature. The ideal state of being is centrally the awareness that we are not selves or are empty of an intrinsic nature. This awareness—nirvana—is a state of peace and compassion that ends the cycle of rebirth. The transformation from suffering to nirvana is achieved through intellectual, ethical, and meditative disciplines, the spiritual exercises, namely the Eightfold Path or the Six Perfections. Though Buddhism denies that there is a self, this denial is connected to an understanding of human nature as consisting of five kinds of “aggregates” and having the capacity for enlightenment.","PeriodicalId":294027,"journal":{"name":"Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128044690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pyrrho and Pyrrhonism","authors":"C. Gowans","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter argues that Pyrrho and ancient Pyrrhonian skepticism (specifically, Sextus Empiricus) are plausibly interpreted as accepting a self-cultivation philosophy, though in somewhat different senses and with some qualification. For both, the existential starting point is an emotionally troubled life rooted in beliefs about the world, and the ideal state of being is a life of tranquility without these beliefs and guided by appearances. It is difficult to say what spiritual exercises Pyrrho thought were needed to achieve the ideal state: perhaps learning his philosophy and habituating ourselves to follow it. However, for Sextus, employment of skeptical arguments was the primary exercise. Since neither Pyrrho nor Sextus supposed we could make assertions about the specific nature of things, neither had a philosophy of human nature in a straightforward sense. Nonetheless, presentations of their outlooks betray some perspective on this (e.g., about the relationship between absence of belief and tranquility).","PeriodicalId":294027,"journal":{"name":"Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123184697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Bhagavad Gita","authors":"C. Chapple","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter defends an interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita as a self-cultivation philosophy. First, it depicts our existential starting point as a state of anxiety, fear, confusion, and worry. Second, it describes the ideal state of being as a life of wisdom, union with the divine, self-control, peace, renunciation of desire, freedom from attachments and disruptive emotions, and performance of our duties—and ultimately liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Third, its transformation program includes spiritual exercises that emphasize philosophical reflection, meditative understanding, the purification of our affective states, and the reformation of our habits, all under the guidance of Krishna (namely, action, knowledge, and devotion yoga). Finally, this analysis is based on a complex conception of human nature according to which, though our true self appears to be prakṛti (matter), it is in fact puruṣa (spirit), and it is connected to other persons and the divine, especially Krishna.","PeriodicalId":294027,"journal":{"name":"Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124358503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Epicureanism","authors":"C. Gowans","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941024.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter argues that ancient Epicureanism (mainly Epicurus, Lucretius, and Philodemus) is plausibly interpreted as a self-cultivation philosophy. The existential starting point is a life of irrational fears and frustrated desires. The ideal state of well-being is a life of pleasure, understood primarily as the absence of physical pain and mental distress (more tranquilism than hedonism). This ideal life is free of fear of death and the gods, and it is devoted to friendship, moral virtue, and the pursuit of desires only if they are natural and necessary. The philosophical foundation is a materialist, atomistic theory of nature and human nature that entails that death is nothing to fear, the gods are unconcerned with us, and only natural and necessary desires are important. We achieve this ideal through spiritual exercises that involve learning Epicurean philosophy, modifying desires, and cultivating virtue in a community of like-minded people.","PeriodicalId":294027,"journal":{"name":"Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124820676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}