The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Pyrrhonist, Theravadin - Essay Example

Pyrrhonist, Theravada, and ical Chinese approaches to ethics can all be categorized as philosophical schools of thoughts held by different groups each having its own weaknesses and strengths. Pyrrhonists are however fundamentally different from the other two in that; they primarily embody a pure philosophical doctrine without religious undertones unless the philosopher should chose to discourse on a given religious concept. This paper undertakes to examine each one of them with reference to their characteristic weakness and strengths briefly explaining why none of them can be explicitly described as superior to the others by virtue of the fact that they are all subject to different interpretations by their followers. Pyrrhonist Skepticism is a school of philosophy classified under extreme skepticism and founded on the assumption that it is impossible for the mind to be certain of anything including the very fact that it cannot know anything (Richard 65). Philosophers under this school of thought deny the possibility of humans obtaining any real knowledge about the surrounding world; they postulate that human minds and senses are unqualified to adequately acquire any such knowledge. This philosophy appears to be in line with Descartes’s notion in which he presupposes that human beings can doubt everything except the fact that they are capable of doubting, the Pyrrhonist’s skeptics however go a step further and even put to question the ability to question things. Until it is critically considered, the claim appears fallacious and even overly dramatic and one would imagine it would be an easy task to “set them straight”. However, it is very difficult to actually prove them wrong since by making even their conclusions inconclusive, they leave their critics with very little to disprove since they only need to point out weakness in the axioms and premises of the subject in question. While it may be quite interesting as a philosophy, on the practical side of it is of little use to scholars or even scientists. By contending that humans can never be completely sure of anything, it undermines the empirical nature of science and makes it possible for people to question anything for the sake of philosophy rather than for its own sake. For example from a Pyrrhonist point of view if a scientist discovered the cure for AIDS, they may question the validity of this cure by asking if there was ever AIDs in the first place, how can we be sure what we thought was AIDs was not all imagined? While these questions may appear rather foolish to some school of thoughts, they are actually a valid line of reasoning for Pyrrhonists. Ultimately, under this philosophy, humans are deficient in every way possible and life should proceed as perpetual state of suspended investigation since there is always the chance that the conclusions made are wrong. Despite its deficiency in terms of practicality, it can serve a purpose, provided it is not followed to its “illogical” conclusion. In the course of investigations, people tend to overly rely on empirical and statistical data and as a result, they end up shutting of their minds to phenomena that is outside the immediate realm of their understanding. Therefore, Pyrrhonist assume it is possible for anything to be questioned, which by extension makes people more willing to be open minded and less predisposed to discriminative thinking. Furthermore, it is an excellent way for people, more so children to exercise their powers of creative thinking and imagination, by learning to question everything and anything, children will be open minded and can develop innovation and creativity. Despite these strengths, it is worth noting that the fact that Pyrrhonistsim allows even its own results to be questioned from any angle means it has to be limited otherwise its practice becomes a series of endless ramblings about what could or could not be with no regard to predetermined factors. Theravada is the oldest Buddhism branch that has survived to modernity, the literal meaning of the name is teaching of the elders and it is one of the relatively conservative Buddhist philosophies (Gethin 1). The tradition is followed in several countries around the globe more so in East and South East Asia, in countries like India and Sri Lanka. The Theravada doctrine lays a great deal of emphasis on salvation through one’s own determinations and stand by to Pali scriptures based on the non-theistic ideal of self-purification to Nirvana. The primary focus of Theravada is on the original teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), unlike other Buddhist practices; it places little focus on rituals but rather focuses on personal change for people to achieve enlightenment which is the overall goal of the Buddhist religion. The main strength of Theravada is that it is considerably more universal than many other elements of the Buddhist faith since it does not require its followers to subject themselves to a specific deity. Therefore, it is fairly open and all one has to do is to follow the teachings within and practice meditation as well as living in accordance to the requirements of the doctrine. In addition, its focus on personal responsibility is likely to make its followers more responsible and conscious of their actions, the effects on the environment as well as those around them. Many religious philosophies tend to be centred on a specific deity, which makes it easy for the followers to claim that the higher power is responsible for some of their misdeeds. In Theravada, there is no avenue for such and each devotee must take full responsibility for their actions. Nevertheless, it does have its weak points; the most overt is the fact that by having no overall deity, the followers tend to be disunited as they have a great deal of autonomy. They do not always share many in things, therefore their philosophy can be weakened by lack of consistency. Theravada Buddhism has in the past been criticized for its treatment of women who are perceived to hold lower ranks than men in the monk lineages. There are more roles for men than women and some of the rules appear to be discriminative of women such as the requirement that women must not travel unless men accompany them. Many followers of the doctrine have tried to justify the differences based on ex post facto conditions such as security concerns but even then, there remain numerous gaps, which overtly engender the superiority of men. Confucianism is without doubt one of the foremost classical Chinese philosophical doctrines that teaches about the ethical life; it has been described as both a philosophical and religious system and it is a crucial part of Chinese culture even in modern times. It emerged from the teachings of Confucius who developed it as a form of ethical- social political teaching, it however later evolved to cover even cosmological elements. After legalism was abandoned in china, and it was made the official State ideology by the Han dynasty (Craig 550). In essence, Confucianism is a combination of a political and human nature theory that yields a Tao, the Tao, is defined as a prescriptive doctrine or a way. The political elements of the doctrine is based on the presupposition that political mandate is divine and therefore power comes from above supplied and justified by a higher being. Since a legitimate ruler derives power from heaven’s command, he bears responsibility to the people making him duty bound to ensure the wellbeing of his subjects more so concerning bringing about peace in the empire. According to the Confucius doctrine, humans are essentially social animals and conventions and rituals mediate their means of interaction with each other. These predetermine the distinctions and the responses with which they should be met; therefore; education is based on the natural inclinations of the individuals who are given the job of facilitating it. A ruler should therefore always be sure to set a good example to his subjects who are in turn expected to emulate moral role models promoting a widespread and natural ethical education. Like the Theravada doctrine, Confucianism assumes that people are largely responsible for their actions and although Confucianism promotes the use of rituals and symbols as well as recognizing deities, they are both open to the notion of learning and self-responsible humans. In principle, all people can actually be like sages under Confucianism if only they act in accordance with the way (Tao) automatically and without needing conscious effort to do so. The ideal vision for Confucianism is a world where there is peace and harmony between men and men as well as with nature resulting in spiritual and material wellbeing for everyone. One of the greatest strengths of Confucianism is that it has a dual character, this is to say that is because while it is fundamentally a life philosophy, it is also has a religious import which is implied by the fact that when a follower finds their “way” searching for other faiths becomes redundant. On the other hand, despite this religious element, Confucianism does not preclude members of different religious faiths making it inherently all-inclusive and universal. The main weakness of Confucianism in the contemporary setting is the fact that like Theravadin, it does not recognize men and women as being equal (Jiang 229), this is actually quite ironic since it is one of the few schools of Eastern philosophy that does not discriminate based on social class. They hold that the nobility and the lower classes can be at the same level if they all follow the teachings of Confucius but the perception of equality appears to be watered down by the underlying gender bias. In as much as it is practiced in contemporary society its teachings in respect to gender inequalities are generally ignored in most western and even liberal Asian circle and largely this weakness is a major reason why Confucianism is not as widely practiced as it should be. The question as to which of the three philosophies is the most important is a complex one and giving a correct answer is not a realistic option since the different cultures in which they all exist have radically different understandings of them. At the end of the day, philosophies are akin to languages, while there may be some that are more complex or simpler than the rest, there is none that can be said to be better than another is since each language essentially describes all the relevant social and physical experiences for the community that speaks it. That said, on a practical level, there is little doubt that Pyrrhonist ideologies are not likely to be applicable in real life or religion as are the Confucian and Theravadin ones. Therefore, while not claiming it is inferior to them they are more practical and explicable since they can and have been successfully applied by various communities in the past and present. Conversely, Pyrrhonist ideas only exist in the abstract since conceptualizing them in the practice would be self-defeating to the assumption that there can be no real solution or understanding of anything by mankind. Works Cited Craig, Edward. “Rutledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 7”. Taylor & Francis. 1998. ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3. Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. Jiang, Xinyan. "Confucianism, Women, and Social Contexts." Journal of Chinese Philosophy 36.2 (2009): 228-242. Richard, Popkin. “David Hume and the Pyrrhonian Controversy”. The Review of Metaphysics. Vol. 6, No. 1 (Sep., 1952), pp. 65-81 Read More