[Buddha-l] Views of morality, culture, and religion

[Richard Nance]

On 9/1/06, Malcolm Dean <malcolmdean at gmail.com> wrote:

> So there is no escaping the nature of knowledge, or more
> fundamentally, the nature of Information. If you choose either
> definition of morality, you are left with demonstrably imprecise and
> fallible processes which will deviate from a lawful understanding of
> the Universe.

> In this way, calling Buddhism a "moral goal" is to diminish it.

You've lost me completely, Malcolm. It seems to me that you've
happened across the insight that normative assumptions can be
described -- and even explained -- in terms that downplay their own
normativity. Notably, however, these terms are typically themselves
informed by a body of normative assumptions: assumptions regarding
what counts as good and bad explanation, methodology, experimental
procedure, presentation of results, and so on -- assumptions, in
short, about what one should and should not do, say, think, etc.

Obviously, you've got your own presuppositions about what we should
and shouldn't do. Likewise, you've got your own presuppositions about
how Buddhism *ought* to be described, how knowledge *ought* to be
constituted, and so on. You may be right that "there is no escaping
the nature of knowledge" (thought I'm not quite sure what this means)
-- but it's important to see that the conclusions you've drawn from
this are shot through with normativity, like it or not. These
conclusions are claims that (in your opinion) rational people *should*
assent to (in this case, claims regarding what Buddhists should and
should not hold to be properly descriptive of Buddhism).

When you go on to say that "calling Buddhism a "moral goal" is to
diminish it," you seem to be aspiring toward a Buddhism that is
ideally free of such "should-s," insofar as they impede the pursuit of
what Buddhism is really all about. But if this picture of Buddhism is
correct, it's tough to see how could a Buddhist could argue in favor
of it without risking performative self-contradiction.


Best wishes,

R. Nance