School of thought

Buddhism

Tradition

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Classification

Period
c. 500 BCE onward
Regions
South Asia (origin)
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

    Naess placed Buddhism among the ultimate premises from which the deep ecology platform can be derived, alongside Christianity and Spinoza's philosophy.

  • Mahayana Influenced by this tradition

    Mahayana was not a separate ordination lineage: its followers kept the same monastic rule and the same teaching of no-self and dependent origination as other Buddhists, and pushed that teaching further, from the absence of a self in the person to the emptiness of every thing.

  • Neo-Confucianism Influenced by this tradition

    Zhu Xi studied Chan Buddhism in his youth, and traces of Huayan Buddhism's holistic thought can be discerned in the way he built his synthesis.

  • Theravada Influenced by this tradition

    Carries forward the Buddha's own teaching as its doctrinal core: the four noble truths, the eightfold path, dependent origination, and no-self.

  • Vedanta Reacted to this tradition

References