This is philosophy bites with me, Nigel Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
Philosophy Bites is unfunded.
Please help us keep it going by subscribing or donating at www.
Dot philosophy bites.com or you can become a patron at Patreon.
Accurate figures are hard to come by, but worldwide, perhaps 500 million people practice Buddhism.
Buddhism is a religion founded on the teachings of the spiritual leader Buddha.
Born in the 6th century BC, it has no place for a God.
Graham Priest is at the City University of New York.
He says that Buddhism is particularly rich in philosophical insight.
Graham Priest, welcome to philosophy Bites.
Hi, Nigel.
The topic we're going to focus on is Buddhism and philosophy.
Now, we know that Buddhism is, amongst other things, a religion, but how is it relevant to philosophy?
Well, you're certainly right that Buddhism is a religion.
It has its sacred texts, its sacred places, its rituals, its priesthoods and so on.
However, like most religions, it has a philosophical underpinning, a view of the nature of the world and metaphysics.
It has views about how you should live and how you should treat others as an ethics.
It has views about how you know these things.
So these are all standard philosophical questions, metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and whether or not you subscribe to the religious side of the practices, you can certainly be interested in the philosophical aspects.
That doesn't even mean you have to believe them.