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10.3: Chapter Summary

  • Page ID
    37116
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    To exemplify the way of reasoned inquiry for Buddhism the excerpt from the Milindapanha presents a philosophical dialogue between an inquisitive and skeptical King Milinda and a calm and learned Buddhist philosopher. Their discussion takes up the "ultimate unreality" of what we ordinarily conceive the individual person to be, the transcendent nature of the ultimate state of enlightenment (nỉvana/nibbana), and along the way the role of reasoning and wisdom in the pursuit of enlightenment. In addition to rationally plausible answers to fundamental questions, the reader is given a model of intellectual inquiry and argument that is itself a drawing near to ultimate realityo as Buddhists conceive it.

    As an illustration of the way of reasoned inquiry as found in the Christian tradition, Anselm's Proslogion is simultaneously an impassioned seeking of God and a philosophical meditation. It aims, through rational argumentation, to rouse the mind of the reader from meditating on an idea of God that faith has-"that being than which nothing greater can be conceived"-to a recognition of the infinite realityo? to which that idea points. Here rational inference fuses with intuitive insight and discursive argument culminates in mystical awareness. Here too a model is presented of a form of intellectual inquiry and argument that is itself a drawing near to ultimate realityo? as Christians conceive it.


    This page titled 10.3: Chapter Summary is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dale Cannon (Independent) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.