Buddhism and Western Thought

This course in the history of ideas examines the European and American reception of Buddhism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially among secular thinkers. After introducing the foundations of Buddhist traditions, we will investigate the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche; psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and literature; counterculture and the emergence of Western Buddhism and Buddhist modernism. We will also consider critical notions of Orientalism, the problematic tendency to exoticize cultures outside Europe and the United States. Students will engage in mindfulness practices.