Early Buddhist Outlook in Historical Perspective

by G.B. Upreti

Though scholars like T.W.Rhys Davids and Trevor Ling have maintained that the early Buddhist world-view emphasized the collective over the individual, it is debatable and the author seeks to prove that the consciousness of the individual and individuality, which at the empirical level involves the rise of private property, family and the state, finds its most sophisticated and rational expression in early Buddhism. It also rationalised individualism and gave it a human face by curbing the wayward, infantile and egocentric tendencies both at theoretical and empirical levels.