[Buddha-l] Kalupahana

[Stefan Detrez]

> Does anyone have an opinion about David Kalupahana? That is, would
> you regard him as a reliable and insightful Buddhist scholar?

 I don' know him personally, but I read his 'Ethics in Early Buddhism' 
(EEB), which, in my beginning years in the study of Buddhism, was quite 
impressive. 
 Now, however, I find his attempts to 'synchronize' Buddhist ethics with 
Western ethics/pragmatism/utilitarianism a bit flawed and compulsive. You 
can wonder what his agenda is to try and observe similarities between them. 
For classically schooled philosophers in the West, recycling their 
encyclopedic knowledge of Western philosophy, it might serve as a shallow 
intro to Buddhist Ethics, but once you get behind the introduction, it 
becomes a bit dissappointing.
 Maybe you can read Damien Keown's review on that book right below.
 http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/damien.htm
 Not having read it entirely, it airs some of my observations on that 
particular book.
 Then, there's 'The History of Buddhist Thought. Continuities and 
Discontinuities', which is more a thematically arranged discussion of 
pivotal texts in the development of Buddhist thought, rather than a 
chronological one. It breathes the same breath of postmodern 'all 
philosophies are alike', which, in a continuity with his EEB, uses the same 
rhetoric. Too many assumptions are unexplained for a satisfactory reading. 
He discusses certain elements found in texts as if those elements are 
representative for the whole texts/tradition that goes with it.
 Here's the review.
 http://books.philosophyarchive.com/free.php?in=us&asin=0824814029

He also has his translation of Nagarjuna's MMK, which was also received with 
reluctance.
Kalupahana is interesting to study how Western discourse is attempted to fit 
Buddhist discourse in explanatory models. But that's food for thought for 
literary critics, and less so, buddhologists.
 Stefan
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