Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia

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Description

Pyrrho of Elis went with Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India all through the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334–324 BC. There he met with early Buddhist masters. Greek Buddha shows how their Early Buddhism shaped the philosophy of Pyrrho, the famous founder of Pyrrhonian scepticism in ancient Greece.

Christopher I. Beckwith traces the origins of a tremendous tradition in Western philosophy to Gandhara, a country in Central Asia and northwestern India. He systematically examines the teachings and practices of Pyrrho and of Early Buddhism, including those preserved in testimonies by and about Pyrrho, Within the report on Indian philosophy twenty years later by the Seleucid ambassador Megasthenes, Within the first-person edicts by the Indian king Devanampriya Priyadarsi referring to a well-liked number of the Dharma Within the early third century BC, and in Taoist echoes of Gautama’s Dharma in Warring States China. Beckwith demonstrates how the teachings of Pyrrho agree closely with those of the Buddha Sakyamuni, “the Scythian Sage.” Within the process, he identifies eight distinct philosophical schools in ancient northwestern India and Central Asia, including Early Zoroastrianism, Early Brahmanism, and a few kinds of Early Buddhism. He then shows the influence that Pyrrho’s brand of scepticism had at the evolution of Western thought, first in Antiquity, and later, all through the Enlightenment, at the great philosopher and self-proclaimed Pyrrhonian, David Hume.

Greek Buddha demonstrates that through Pyrrho, Early Buddhist thought had a tremendous affect on Western philosophy.

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