Many people describe themselves as secular rather than religious, but they often qualify this statement by claiming an interest in spirituality. But what kind of spirituality is possible in the absence of religion? In this book, Michael McGhee shows how religious traditions and secular humanism function as 'schools of wisdom' whose aim is to expose and overcome the forces that obstruct justice. He examines the ancient conception of philosophy as a form of ethical self-inquiry and spiritual practice conducted by a community, showing how it helps us to reconceive the philosophy of religion in terms of philosophy as a way of life. McGhee discusses the idea of a dialogue between religion and atheism in terms of Buddhist practice and demonstrates how a non-theistic Buddhism can address itself to theistic traditions as well as to secular humanism. His book also explores how to shift the centre of gravity from religious belief towards states of mind and conduct.
目次
Acknowledgements ix A Shakespearean Prologue: The Voice of Cordelian Ethics 1 Introduction 5
1 'A Spiritually Enlightened Individual' 11 2 The Resources of a Much Earlier Phase of the Tradition' 21 3 The Distractions of Baruch Spinoza 28 4 Immanuel Kant: "To Regard as Petty What We Are Otherwise Anxious About' 32 5 Wittgenstein's Cool Temple 37 6 Rilke, Shakespeare... and a Little Freud 40 7 Concealment and Revelation 50 8 Mindfulness and the Form of a Philosophical Life 54 9 Epictetus: 'The Beginning of Philosophy...' 63 10 Ted Hughes: Evaporation, Translation, Translocation 69 11 Philosophy as an Inventive Convergence of Methods 74 12 Richard Norman: 'The Truths It Contains Are Human Truths' 78 13 Perspectives: Marmalade Stains on the Breakfast Table 85 14 David Hume: Wanting the Natural Sentiments of Humanity 90 15 'What is the Difference between Love and God's Love?' 98 16 'Peace, Wild Wooddove, Shy Wings Shut' 114 17 ‘Only a Little Snivelling Half-Wit Can Maintain That’ 120 18 ‘The World Is Too Much with Us’ 134 19 Of Self and SELF, of Ātman and Anātman 137 20 ‘I Am Myself Alone’ 148 21 The Five Heaps of Skandhas 161 22 ‘We Claim That There Is a Person but We Do Not Say That He Is an Entity’ 169 23 Birds, Frogs, and Tintern Abbey 173 24 Human Resources and Hubris 184 References 193 Index 197
