Ancient Greek and Indian Buddhist Philosophers on Reality and Selfhood

Ancient Greek and Indian Buddhist Philosophers on Reality and Selfhood cover

Description

Key areas and aspects of ancient philosophy in Greek and Indian Buddhist traditions are illuminated in this collection.

Covering an extended period of time, from early (5th century BC), through Hellenism (at Cyrene), to post-Hellenistic times (up to the 7th century AD) it begins by focusing on historical themes and methods in ancient Greece and India. This sketch of historical and philosophical connections between the regions, from Classical times to post-Hellenism, sets the ground for deeper exploration between these two traditions.

Attention is placed on reality and selfhood. An international team of contributors deal with topics including consciousness, personal identity and personhood. They tackle metaphysical questions about composition and material constitution of things, shedding light on the challenges Greek and Buddhist thinkers faced.

Converging analyses and shared themes are identified in a substantive introduction to the collection. Key philosophical terms from ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Tibetan are included in a glossary. This is an important contribution to the growing literature in ancient comparative philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jan Westerhoff and Ugo Zilioli, Oxford University

Part I: History

1) Travel and Intellectual Exchange across the Ancient Indian Ocean world (ca. 100 BCE to 600 CE), Matthew Cobb (University of Wales, Trinity St Davids, UK)
2) Early Scythian Logic and the Quaestiones Disputatae Method, Christopher I. Beckwith (Indiana University, USA)
3) Hegesias: When Hellenistic and Buddhist Philosophies Unexpectedly Meet in Cyrene, Ugo Zilioli (Oxford University, UK)

Part II: Knowledge and Reality
4) Eliminativism in the Presocratics, Diego Zucca (Sassari University, Italy)
5) Being and not being in Gorgias' idios apodeixis, Roberta Ioli (Bologna University, Italy)
6) The Political Hazards of Idiosyncratic Knowledge, Amber Carpenter (Yale at Singapore, Singapore)
7) Dust World: Composition, Constitution, and Emergence in Buddhist Metaphysics, Sonam Kachru (Yale University, USA)
8) Buddhist Cosmology and Its Ethical Dimensions, Oran Tanner (NYU at Abu Dhabi, UAE)
9) Gorgias and Nagarjuna, Ugo Zilioli (Oxford University, UK)

Part III: Selfhood
10) Consciousness in the Pali discourses of the Buddha, Andrea Sangiacomo (University of Groeningen, Netherlands)
11) The Treasury of the Self. Democritus on personal identity, Enrico Piergiacomi ( Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
12) Personal identity in Protagoras and Vasubandhu, Joachim Aufderheide (Kings College London, UK)
13) Eliminating Selves and Persons, Monica Chadha (Monash University, Australia)
14) Selfhood in Yogacara Buddhist Philosophy, Szilvia Szanyi (Oxford University, UK)

Glossary
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 11 Dec 2025
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 304
ISBN 9781350460379
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Ugo Zilioli

Ugo Zilioli is John Fell Fund Researcher at the Fa…

Anthology Editor

Jan Westerhoff

Jan Westerhoff is Professor of Buddhist Studies at…

Related Titles

Environment: Staging