Episode 20: Confucianism vs. Buddhism (first "live show")

One influential justification for becoming Buddhist is to end suffering, starting (it seems) with the Buddhist practitioner's own suffering. Does this indicate that Buddhist practitioners are selfish? After Buddhism became popular in China, many Confucians argued that Buddhism puts personal salvation before ethics, and is thus selfish in that respect. Some Confucians also objected to the particular sort of compassion that Buddhists were supposed to adopt ("unconditioned compassion"), insisting that it was fundamentally incompatible with the special attachments needed for important human relationships between family members and close friends. 

In our first show before a live audience, Justin presents two criticisms of Buddhism, Jenny Hung 洪真如 defends Buddhism against the criticisms, and Richard moderates. The show was held at a meeting of the American Philosophical Association, and many wiser scholars in the audience weighed in as well. Join us for the lively (and quite friendly) "debate."

Many thanks to The Hong Kong Ethics Lab and the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association for sponsoring this podcast series. Thanks also to Dana Jae Audio Collective (especially Casey Hudson and Maüxe Madden) for staging and recording the event, and to Lena Li (LI La 李拉 ) for her editing and mixing. They are consummate professionals.

Want to continue the discussion? Need links to some of the sources mentioned? Go to the support page for this episode on Warp, Weft, and Way.

Jenny Hung's website
Richard Kim's website
Justin Tiwald's website

Want to skip to episode's primary philosophical issue? Go to
- 4:19: preface to today's discussion, or
- 5:39: part II

Chapters

• 0:00 Part I -- Introduction
• 4:19 • Preface to today's topic
• 5:39 Part II -- Confucianism vs. Buddhism
• 5:40 • Introducing Jenny Hung (洪真如)
• 9:58 • Confucianism vs. Buddhism in history and philosophy
• 13:49 • Introducing our Buddhist philosopher: Zongmi 宗密
• 16:40 • The first criticism: Buddhist selfishness
• 49:22 • The second criticism: unconditioned compassion and relationships
• 1:07:47 • Questions from the audience