The Philosophy of Buddhism

by Erich Frauwallner

The translation of Erich Frauwallner's Die Philosophies des Buddhism, first published in 1956, open up a classic introduction to Buddhist thought to a broader English language readership. The book covers the period of early canonical literature with examples of its philosophically relevant ideas, followed by the principal philosophical concepts of systematic Sravakayana Buddhism.

In the main part of the book, Frauwallner presents the first survey of the development of the philosophical systems of Mahayana-Buddhism. He was well aware of the limitations in presenting only the Buddhist philosophy of the "classical", i.e., the systematic period, and does not seem to have been ready to add the philosophically creative new post-systematic tradition of Buddhist epistemology and logic, a major subject of his subsequent years of research.

Table of Contents:

• Preface/Ernst Steinkellner
• Introduction/Erich Frauwallner
• I. The Teaching of the Buddha
1. The Buddha (ca. 560-480 b.c.e.)
2. The Proclamation of the Buddha
3. Questions that the Buddha did not Answer
4. The Tenet of Dependent Origination
• II. The Scholasticism (Abhidharma) of the Way of Hearers (Saravakayana)
1. The Rise of the Buddhist Schools
2. The Principal Philosophical Doctrines of the Sarvastivada
3. The Fundamental Concepts
4. The Doctrine of Liberation of the Sravakayana
• III. The Schools of the Great Way (Mahayana)
1. Main Elements in the Development of the Mahayana
2. The Beginnings of the Mahayana
3. The Oldest Literary Documentation of the Mahayana
4. The Madhyamaka school
5. The school of Saramati
6. The Yogacara school.

About the Author:

Prof. Erich Frauwallner, born December 28, 1898, was appointed extraordinary professor of Indology and Iranian Studies in August 1939 at Vienna University and full professor in 1960 at the newly opened Institute of Indology. He was not only widely acknowledged throughout the international scholarly community for his numerous path-breaking studies and the History of Indian Philosophy but was also a fascinating and motivating teacher. He died on July 5, 1974.