The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies

27 February

Mr Justin Whitaker: “Wriggling Eels in the Wilderness of Views: Studies in Buddhist Ethics.”

The emergence of the sub-discipline of Buddhist ethics is a very recent event in Western academic history. So recent, in fact, that it is difficult to pinpoint even the decade of its origins. In this talk Mr Justin Whitaker will survey some of the history of studies in Buddhist ethics primarily conducted by European and North American scholars but also including several notable South and East Asian writers. While that history extends well over 100 years, the massive expansion of work in Buddhist ethics in just the last 20 years will dominate the discussion. Mr Whitaker will conclude with a survey of contemporary work in Buddhist ethics and suggest where the field will hopefully go in the coming years.

Mr Justin Whitaker is a student of Damien Keown and a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London. There he is working on a thesis comparing early Buddhist ethics and the work of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Mr Whitaker holds a BA (with Honours) in Philosophy from The University of Montana and an MA (with Distinction) in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University. He has extensive experience teaching Buddhist Studies and Philosophy as an Instructor and Teaching Assistant at The University of Montana as well as Antioch University's Education Abroad programme based in Bodhgaya, India. He has presented papers at several academic conferences including “Meditation's Ethics: Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and Buddhist Metta-Bhavana” at the American Academy of Religion's 2009 international conference in Montreal.

All lectures take place at 5.30pm at Balliol College lecture room 23.

For more information visit www.ocbs.org