School of thought

Buddhism

Tradition

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Classification

Period
c. 500 BCE onward
Regions
south asia
Domains
Ethics , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion

Overview

Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, diagnoses the human condition as pervaded by suffering (dukkha) caused by craving and ignorance. The path to liberation runs through ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom — culminating in nirvana, the cessation of suffering. Its radical teaching of anatta (no-self) challenges the very notion of a permanent, unchanging soul.

Key ideas

  • Four Noble Truths: Life involves suffering (dukkha); suffering arises from craving (tanha); suffering can cease; the path to cessation is the Noble Eightfold Path.
  • Anatta (No-Self): There is no permanent, unchanging self or soul. What we call 'self' is a constantly changing stream of physical and mental processes (the five aggregates).
  • Dependent Origination: Conditioned phenomena arise and cease in dependence on specific causes and conditions. Applied to suffering, this teaching explains both its continuation and the possibility of its cessation.

Key figures

Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) · Ananda · Sariputta · Moggallana

Methods used

Positions held

Reacts to

  • Jainism
  • Vedic Philosophy

    Rejected the authority and efficacy of Vedic sacrificial ritual and the Brahminical order, replacing them with a path of insight open to all.

Later connections

  • Environmental Ethics Influenced by this tradition

    Arne Naess drew explicitly on Buddhist interdependence in framing deep ecology's non-anthropocentric holism.

  • Mahayana Influenced by this tradition
  • Neo-Confucianism Influenced by this tradition
  • New Confucianism Influenced by this tradition

    Xiong Shili reworked Yogācāra 'consciousness-only' philosophy into a Confucian metaphysics, and Mou Zongsan engaged Buddhist epistemology to reconstruct Confucian moral metaphysics.

  • Theravada Influenced by this tradition
  • Vedanta Reacted to this tradition

References