[Buddha-l] Bertrand Russell

[Barnaby Thieme]

>There is, of course, a very long tradition in both Europe and Asia
>of refuting gross caricature's of one's opponents.

There is no denying this, and indeed, some of my favorite polemical material 
comes from the dge-lugs-pa school. 'jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, for example, once 
referred to the sa-skya scholar stag-tshangs-lo-tsa-ba as "under possession 
of the madness that causes one to mouth nonsense".

Barnaby~

_________________________________

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing
- Emo Philips




>From: Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
>Reply-To: Buddhist discussion forum <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
>To: Buddhist discussion forum <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
>Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Bertrand Russell
>Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 16:21:18 -0600
>
>On Saturday 12 August 2006 01:40, Barnaby Thieme wrote:
>
> > re: Russel, his "History of Western Philosophy" is amusing, but
> > notoriously unreliable. The philosophers he does not like are
> > depicted in grotesque charicature.
>
>There is, of course, a very long tradition in both Europe and Asia
>of refuting gross caricature's of one's opponents. (It's so much
>more fun than being intellectually honest) The Pali canon's
>depictions of Brahmanical culture are outrageous. Nagarjuna refutes
>alleged abhidharma ideas that no abhidharmika ever held. Mahayana
>sutras offer caricatures of "hinayana" that are completely absurd.
>There is no truth at all to the way Huineng's rival was depicted in
>The Platform Sutra. Nichiren torched entire armies of straw men. My
>legendary politeness prevents me from mentioning instances of
>living Buddhists who have caricatured other Buddhists and followers
>of other religions (especially, these days, Islam).
>
>Take unfair caricature out of a philosopher's tool kit, and the
>philosopher becomes a reliable but dull pedant (except that most
>philosophers are such pee-poor scholars that they don't even
>qualify as pedants).
>
>--
>Richard Hayes
>Department of Philosophy
>University of New Mexico
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