Nietzsche and Buddhism, Morison

Home > Books > Books by Title A-Z >

Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities
By: Morison

Our Price: $39.95
Members Price: $35.96

Author: Morrison
ISBN: 0198238657 / 9780198238652
Publication Date: 1999

Product Code: 3780

Qty:

Description

About the author

Contents

Robert Morrison offers an illuminating comparative study of two linked and interacting traditions that have had great influence in twentieth century thought: Buddhism and the philosophy of Nietzsche. Nietzsche saw a direct historical parallel between the cultural situation of his own time and of the India of the Buddha's age: the emergence of nihilism as a consequence of loss of traditional belief. Nietzsche's fear, still resonant today, was that Europe was about to enter a nihilistic era in which people, no longer able to believe in the old religious and moral values, would feel themselves adrift in a meaningless cosmos where life seems to have no particular purpose or end. Though he admired Buddhism as a noble and humane response to this situation, Nietzsche came to think that it was wrong in not seeking to overcome nihilism, and constituted a threat to the future of Europe. It was in reaction against nihilism that he forged his own affirmative philosophy aiming at the transvaluation of all values.
Nietzsche's view of Buddhism has been very influential in the West; Dr. Morrison gives a careful critical examination of this view, argues that in fact Buddhism is far from being a nihilistic religion, and offers a counterbalancing Buddhist view of the Nietzschean enterprise. He draws out the affinities and conceptual similarities between the two, and concludes that, ironically, Nietzsche's aim of self-overcoming is akin to the Buddhist notion of citta-bhavana (mind cultivation). Had Nietzsche lived in an age where Buddhism was better understood, Morrison suggests, he might even have found in the Buddha a model of his hypothetical Ubermensch.

Nietzsche and Buddhism, Robert G. Morrison, Oxford University Press, 250 pages, $39.95

Robert G. Morrison, Lectures in Buddhist Studies, University College, Chester

PART ONE: NIETZSCHE's BUDDHISM

1. Introduction

2. Nietzsche on Buddhism

3. Is Buddhism a Form of Passive Nihilism?

4. How did Nietzsche Reach his Understanding of Buddhism?

PART TWO: IRONIC AFFINITIES

5. Introduction

6. Nietzsche's View of Man

7. The Buddha as a Profound Physiologist

8. Nietzsche's Little Things, the Body, and the Buddhist Khandhas

9. God's Shadow and the Buddhist No-Self Doctrine

10. The Will to Power and Thirst

11. Self-Overcoming and Mind-Development

12. Learning to See and Seeing and Knowing Things as they Really Are

13. Epilogue

Bibliography; Glossary; Index

Share your knowledge of this product with other customers... Be the first to write a review

Browse for more products in the same category as this item:

Books > Books by Title A-Z
Books > Books by Publisher > Oxford University Press
Books
Books > Books by Publisher