Burley, M (2014) Karma and Rebirth in the stream of thought and life. Philosophy East and West, 64 (4). 965 - 982. ISSN 0031-8221
Abstract
This essay explores the concepts of karma and rebirth in the light of some key themes from the later work of Wittgenstein. After clarifying what it means to “bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use” it is considered how certain Wittgenstein-influenced philosophers, notably İlham Dilman and D. Z. Phillips, have sought to recover the meaning of “soul” from metaphysical misappropriations by invoking Wittgenstein’s notion of a “picture” The sort of conceptual recovery involved in this task resembles, in some respects, the “demythologizing” and “psychologizing” approaches of certain interpreters of the doctrine of karma and rebirth, especially within the context of Buddhist studies. Illustrative examples of these approaches are compared and contrasted and discussed in relation to instances of individuals articulating their belief in karma and rebirth. On the basis of this discussion, it is concluded that the interpretive approaches in question fail to account for the sense of individual responsibility for one’s own present circumstances that is central to how talk of karma and rebirth frequently operates “in the stream of thought and life.”
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 by University of Hawai‘i Press. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2015 10:49 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 21:46 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pew.2014.0079 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Hawaii Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1353/pew.2014.0079 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:85282 |