Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy

Panaïoti explores the complex and interesting relations between Nietzsche's philosophical thought and the Buddhist philosophy which he admired and opposed.

Antoine Panaïoti (Author)

9781107031623, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2012

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.55 kg

'… Antoine Panaïoti's Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy takes first place as the best book of my reading year. Beautifully written, a heroic feat of erudition, and an intimate and sympathetic reading of both Nietzsche and classical Buddhist philosophy, this book enacts the ideal whose contours it seeks to define and celebrate in its twin subjects - the ideal of great health that overcomes the despair of nihilism and celebrates the uncanniness of existence …' Wendy C. Hamblet, Metapsychology Online Reviews

Nietzsche once proclaimed himself the 'Buddha of Europe', and throughout his life Buddhism held enormous interest for him. While he followed Buddhist thinking in demolishing what he regarded as the two-headed delusion of Being and Self, he saw himself as advocating a response to the ensuing nihilist crisis that was diametrically opposed to that of his Indian counterpart. In this book Antoine Panaïoti explores the deep and complex relations between Nietzsche's views and Buddhist philosophy. He discusses the psychological models and theories which underlie their supposedly opposing ethics of 'great health' and explodes the apparent dichotomy between Nietzsche's Dionysian life-affirmation and Buddhist life-negation, arguing for a novel, hybrid response to the challenge of formulating a tenable post-nihilist ethics. His book will interest students and scholars of Nietzsche's philosophy, Buddhist thought and the metaphysical, existential and ethical issues that emerge with the demise of theism.

Introduction
Part I. Nihilism and Buddhism: 1. Nietzsche as Buddha
2. Nietzsche as anti-Buddha
Part II. Suffering: 3. Amor Fati and the affirmation of suffering
4. Nirv?na and the cessation of suffering
Part III. Compassion: 5. Overcoming compassion
6. Cultivating compassion
Conclusion: toward a new response to the challenge of nihilism.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Buddhism [HRE], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]