{"id":64029,"date":"2017-03-08T10:43:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T17:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=64029"},"modified":"2017-03-08T10:43:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T17:43:25","slug":"the-buddhist-philosophy-and-critical-thinking-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/03\/08\/the-buddhist-philosophy-and-critical-thinking-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Buddhist\u00a0Philosophy\u00a0and\u00a0Critical\u00a0Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The Buddha’s Charter of Free Inquiry and judging truth are found in the Kalama Sutra of the Anguttara Nikaya. In Kalama Sutra Buddha emphasized the importance of\u00a0critical\u00a0thinking\u00a0that involves seeing things in an open-minded way.\u00a0Critical\u00a0thinking\u00a0helps to evaluate and challenge the thoughts and ideas\u00a0\u00a0 and rethink conclusions in the light of new knowledge.<\/p>\n

Buddhism was conceived as a rational way of thought, being entirely in accordance with the latest findings of the natural sciences and Buddhism was not based on ‘dogmas of blind belief and revelation, but on rational thought and experiential examination. (Martin Baumann – Global Buddhism: developmental periods, regional histories, and a new analytical perspective – Journal of Global Buddhism 2001)<\/p>\n

Critical\u00a0Thinking<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1987, Michael Scriven & Richard Paul gave a detailed description on\u00a0Critical\u00a0Thinking. According to Michael Scriven & Richard Paul\u00a0Criticalthinking\u00a0is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and\/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference.\u00a0Critical\u00a0thinking\u00a0\u2014 in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes\u00a0\u2014 is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of\u00a0thinking, among them: scientific\u00a0thinking, mathematical\u00a0thinking, historical\u00a0thinking, anthropological\u00a0thinking, economic\u00a0thinking, moral\u00a0thinking, and philosophicalthinking.<\/p>\n

The Kalama Sutra and the Modern\u00a0 \u00a0Scientific Method<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques\u00a0\u00a0 for investigating phenomena\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 acquiring new knowledge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on\u00a0\u00a0 principles and empirical processes of discovery and demonstration considered characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, generally involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to demonstrate the truth or falseness of the hypothesis, and a conclusion that validates or modifies the hypothesis. Scientific inquiry is generally intended to be as objective \u00a0\u00a0as possible, to reduce biased interpretations of results.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Kalama Sutra,\u00a0the Lord Buddha encouraged\u00a0critical\u00a0thinking. These are the words of the Lord Buddha in\u00a0Kalama Sutra<\/p>\n

Do not go by revelation or tradition, do not go by rumour, or the sacred scriptures, do not go by hearsay or mere logic, do not go by bias towards a notion or by another person’s seeming ability and do not go by the idea “He is our teacher”. But when you yourself know that a thing is good, that it is not blamable, that it is praised by the wise.<\/p>\n

(Come Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumour; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another\u2019s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, The monk is our teacher.\u201d Kalamas, when you yourselves know: These things are bad; these things are blameable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,\u201d abandon them.<\/em>\u2019Kalama Sutta -Translated from the Pali by Soma Thera The Wheel Publication No. 8\u00a0)<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Bertrand\u00a0\u00a0 Russell\u00a0 \u00a0Buddhism is a combination of both speculative and scientific\u00a0philosophy. It advocates the scientific method and pursues that to a finality that may be called Rationalistic. In it are to be found answers to such questions of interest as: ‘What is mind and matter? Of them, which is of greater importance? Is the universe moving towards a goal? What is man’s position? Is there living that is noble?’ It takes up where science cannot lead because of the limitations of the latter’s instruments. Its conquests are those of the mind.<\/p>\n

Gay Watson of the\u00a0University\u00a0of\u00a0London\u00a0makes a comparison between modern science and Buddhism. He further says that the Buddhism, based as it is upon experience and a psychological understanding of body and mind, is one of the oldest systems of thought yet most in tune with contemporary neuroscience and with other strands of contemporary discourse.<\/p>\n

Scientific methods are the procedures, or steps used to gain information on something previously unknown.\u00a0<\/em>It is a method for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge.\u00a0The Scientific Method helps to organize thoughts and procedures within limited parameters. \u00a0\u00a0However, there are explicit differences between science and Buddhism. Ven\u00a0Walpola Rahula highlights this fact more elegantly in his writings. Ven Rahula states that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Buddhism aims at the discovery and the study of humankind\u2019s inner world: ethical, spiritual, psychological, and intellectual. Buddhism is a spiritual and psychological discipline that deals with humanity in total. It is a way of life. It is a path to follow and practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge \u00a0 The Buddha’s Charter of Free Inquiry and judging truth are found in the Kalama Sutra of the Anguttara Nikaya. In Kalama Sutra Buddha emphasized the importance of\u00a0critical\u00a0thinking\u00a0that involves seeing things in an open-minded way.\u00a0Critical\u00a0thinking\u00a0helps to evaluate and challenge the thoughts and ideas\u00a0\u00a0 and rethink conclusions in the light of new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-ruwan-m-jayatunge-m-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}