[Buddha-l] RE: Moment of individuation

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 17:33 -0600, Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> And so I think we are still dealing here almost entirely with opinion.
> For that reason, I would still want to say with William James that the
> great diversity of possible ways of interpreting our experience
> "absolutely forbids us to be forward in pronouncing on the
> meaninglessness of forms of existence other than our own..."

In another essay, James observes that it is reality that gives warrant
to our conviction that an opinion is true, then he goes on to say "but
what becomes our warrant for calling anything reality? The only reply
is---the faith of the present critic or inquirer. At every moment of his
life he finds himself subject to a belief in some realities, even though
his realities of this year should prove to be his illusions of the
next.... We are ourselves the critics here; and we shall find our burden
much lightened by being allowed to take reality in this relative and
provisional way." (From the essay "The function of cognition" in his
book <cite>The Meaning of Truth</cite>, 1909.)

Of course Nagarjuna (as I interpret him) beat James to this point by two
millennia, and the Buddha (as I interpret him) beat Nagarjuna to the
same point by another six or seven hundred years. 

James, probably more than Nagarjuna and the Buddha, speaks to our modern
condition. As Charles Taylor points out (Sources of the Self: The Making
of Modern Identity, section 1.3 et passim), the commonplace of our time
in history is that there are no absolute frameworks, no frameworks that
are universally accepted as being founded on unquestionable fact. And in
the face of this lack of absolute frameworks, observes Taylor, there are
various strategies of coping. One strategy is to accept one traditional
framework as absolute, and in so doing to declare most of the modern
world as decadent and dangerous and, in some sense at least, an enemy of
truth. (Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope John Paul II, Osama bin Ladin, George
W. Bush, Bhikkhu Bodhi and Sangharakshita all offer versions of this
strategy.) Another strategy is to take on views provisionally,
ironically and heuristically, acknowledging them to be meaningful to
oneself but not necessarily to other people. (Swami Vivekananda, Richard
Rorty, most Quakers and Unitarians, Tenzin Gyatso and Stephen Batchelor
all offer versions of this strategy.) Some who adopt this strategy, says
Taylor, may be unaware of their own uncertainties, while others are
fully aware of how uncertain they are and happily designate themselves
"seekers" and "drifters."  

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico