My guest today is Carolyn Bottler. Carolyn will be leading a discussion of Buddhist ethics later this month for the Austin Philosophy Forum.
Carolyn is a long-time friend and colleague in the philosophy department. I asked Carolyn about her interest in Buddhism and Buddhist ethics.
My personal interest in Buddhist enlightenment and meditation grew out of my experience teaching Plato’s Socratic dialogues here at ACC. Socrates raises perplexing questions about the relationship between knowing and doing with his bold claims for the value of philosophy. Even though philosophy does not ever provide final answers, Socrates yet claimed that it was the greatest good, even worth dying for, just to have these discussions every day. My ACC students and I continue to investigate these questions at the beginning of each semester. How can it be the greatest blessing to find out that we don’t know what we thought we knew? Does increasing knowledge guarantee improvements in how we live? Can virtue be taught? How can a person know what the right action is, but not have the ability to do it? Buddhism is an ancient tradition with many similarities to the ancient Greek philosophers I so enjoy teaching at ACC, along with the advantage of still being practiced today. After ten years of working at meditation practice, and completing seven silent residential retreats, I am very excited for the opportunity to share some of my understanding of contemporary Buddhist theory and practice with the larger ACC community. This talk will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with virtue ethics, addiction and recovery, self-transformation, or meditation.
Thanks, Carolyn!
Join us for the Austin Philosophy Forum, hosted by ACC’s Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities. Carolyn’s discussion of Buddhist ethics is free and open to the public, Wednesday, February 28, 7:00 PM, in room 8500 of the Eastview Campus.
