[Buddha-l] The Malaise of Modernity

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 00:57 -0500, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> > Taylor's concern with instrumental reasoning is that data collection about
> > such things as physical health and psychological well-being tends to focus
> on
> > parts and to ignore the whole person.
> 
> You mean he is anti-Buddhist? Preferring the myth of "whole person" (a type
> of atmavada) to breaking a person (pudgala) down into its causative
> components (skandhas, ayatanas, dhatus, etc.)?

The more I think about it, the clearer it is that there is nothing at
all anti-Buddhist about the notion of the whole person. It is no more a
fiction than are the skandhas, āyatanas and dhātus. I see no good reason
to endorse either ātmavāda or anātmavāda. They are both sticks good only
for stirring up shit.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico