A Critical Investigation on Pragmatism in Buddhist Perspective

Abstract

Pragmatism is a philosophical as well as a psychological concept which originated and developed in the western philosophy. It is also a philosophical school generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century. Pragmatism was developed against traditional philosophical thought. Charles Pierce (1839-1914) who introduced this new trend, saw that it was an efficient path to solve many social problems than through traditional solutions. William James (1842-1910) is the famous philosopher of pragmatism and he is the person who made pragmatism famous. Buddhism is a teaching of practice. Buddhism is pragmatic as it is concerned only about what is useful for the attainment of the goal it describes. Buddhist views of pragmatism are described in the Dhammacakkapavattana sutta, Sigālovada sutta, kālāma sutta, Dhammapada etc. The Eightfold path is considered to have identified pragmatism in Buddhism. In the first discourse, Four Noble Truths are introduced for the first time and it is stated that those truths have three circles (tiparivatta) and twelve models (dvādasākāra). From this abstract I expect to investigate whether Buddhism accepts views of pragmatism as it was introduced in western thought and how far it is comparable with Budhdhist thought. This abstract is based on primary (pāli canon) and secondary data (books, articles, journal).