Moral Phenomenology in a More-Than-Human World: A New Approach to Buddhist Environmental Ethics

Abstract

This dissertation works to accomplish two goals. First, it defends Jay Garfield’s interpretation of Buddhist ethics as a moral phenomenology and develops this ethical system through the Tibetan framework of lta sgom spyod gsum. Second, it looks at how this interpretation of Buddhist ethics can be applied to the more-than-human world to create a novel Buddhist environmental ethic. The first half defends a moral phenomenological interpretation of Buddhist ethics and develops this theory through the framework of lta sgom spyod gsum. To do so, it surveys prior interpretations of Buddhist ethics to provide a foil for the discussion before turning to the arguments for a moral phenomenological interpretation. It then defends this interpretation in the context of the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions of Tibet and both raises and responds to possible issues in a Buddhist moral phenomenology. This dissertation then turns its attention to view, meditation, action as the framework for moral phenomenological praxis. It surveys the ways this framework has been employed in Tibetan contexts before applying this framework to moral phenomenology. It nuances this approach by asking what ‘view’ really means in this context and investigates how meditation and direct meditative experience function to bring a view into one’s default perceptual mode in order to inform one’s action. Part two applies this theory and framework to contemporary issues facing the more-than-human world. It first surveys prior Buddhist environmental ethics before looking at how phenomenology has been given attention in environmental philosophy. It then articulates what an applied moral phenomenology would look like and what specific problems a moral phenomenological approach to environmental ethics can address. Finally, this dissertation proposes a moral phenomenological approach to environmental ethics by searching for an ecological view, analyzing how meditation functions in this context, and considering what the resultant action looks like. In doing so, it shows how moral phenomenology and its implementation through view, meditation, action can be applied to contemporary issues outside the specifics of the Buddhist tradition and can provide novel approaches to solving issues like climate change and the degradation of the more-than-human world.