Buddhism and Science in the Perspective of Intercultural Philosophy

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism and Western science which began in the second half of the 20th century on the ini­tiative of the 14th Dalai Lama and is actively developing today. The paper pro­vides examples of the interaction between the Western (as well as Russian) scien­tists and the leader of the Tibetan Buddhists and Buddhist monks, especially in the field of consciousness studies. During this dialogue some new areas of possible interaction have emerged which involved both – Western scientific method, the Buddhist traditional forms of meditation and philosophy of mind. For all its participants, it becomes obvious that a common philosophical platform is needed to better understand each other and to develop further on their mutu­ally beneficial cooperation. Contemporary philosophers involved in this dialogi­cal process offer a number of approaches to serve this purpose. The article dis­cusses philosophical approaches of Alan Wallace (empiricism), Michel Bitbol (transcendental phenomenological epistemology), and advocates of intercul­tural philosophy (Jay Garfield, Mark Siderits, Victoria Lysenko). It is the inter­cultural approach, the basis of which is the equal status of all participants (the concept of “polylogue”), and their shared good knowledge of the language of science along with concepts elaborated in both – Western and Buddhist philo­sophical traditions, is presented in this paper as the most promising methodologi­cal foundation for the interaction of “multicultural rationalities”.