Should We Care about the Future? Vasubandhu on Selfless Agency and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Location: Vigne, 1221-1 Changle Lu , Shanghai, China
Time: October 26th, 4:00-6:00 pm
Professor Oren Hanner will give a lecture in Shanghai on October 26 sponsored by HRC and the Royal Asiatic Society. Members of the DKU community can register at a discounted rate using a valid @dukekushan.edu.cn email address.
Buddhist philosophy is well known for its rejection of an enduring self that exists beyond the various mental and physical components that make up a person. This rejection, however, raises a host of difficulties—both philosophical and practical. For example, if this is the case, how and why should Buddhists careabout their future happiness? If there is no enduring self that persists from past to present to future, should we worry about whether the outcomes of our actions produce happiness for ourselves in the future?
In this talk, Professor Oren Hanner of Duke Kunshan University introduces the Buddhist critique of the self that underlies this problem. The talk then discusses the way in which the Indian thinker Vasubandhu (c. 4th-5th century CE), one of the founders of the Yogācāra school of Buddhist philosophy, explains the possibility of agency in the absence of a persisting self and his solution to the problem of our motivation to act for our own future happiness, given that the Buddhist path prescribes non-attachment to the self and letting go of desire.
Speaker’s Bio:
Oren Hanner’s research focuses on the history of Buddhist philosophy inIndia, ethics, philosophy of action, and cross-cultural philosophy. His recent writing dealt with questions related to the meaning of life, joint moral agency, and justice, as they can be understood from a Buddhist perspective.
Oren is the editor of Buddhism and Scepticism: Historical, Philosophical, and Comparative Perspectives (Projekt Verlag, 2020) and has published articles in various journals, including Sophia, Comparative Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, and Mindfulness. From 2019 to 2023, he was the book review editor of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.
Oren holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and communication from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an M.A. in philosophy from Tel-Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Hamburg.
Register now: https://ras-china.glueup.cn/event/ras-philosophy-club-oct-26-should-we-care-about-the-future-45311/
