EASTERN/ASIAN PHILOSOPHY WATCH
Be able to answer the following (four)multi-faceted discussion questions in the fullest, complete detailed manner possible.
WARNING! Full credit will be given on how complete your answers are.Don't lose points on partial incomplete responses? Questions are based on the book, Philosophic Classics, Vol Vl, Asian Philosophy, by Forrest E.
Baird, available in free online PDF. Cite references to avoid plagiarism penalty.
1. a.Briefly explain, in your own words, what the Upanishads means by the doctrine "Atman is Braham"
b. What implications does this doctrine have for philosophical questions concerning metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics?
c. In your answer be sure to include stating the implications the doctrine has for traditional problems in personal identity theory.
2. a.How does Yajnalkya's answer to Gargi in chapter 3 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (p. 12) seem to support a pantheistic view of God?
b. How do his answers in chapter 4 to Janaka (p. 13) seem to conflict with an empiricist view of knowledge?
c.How do the stories in chapter 5 (p.17) and chapter 3 of the Kena Upanishad (p. 43) conflict with a polytheistic religious view?
3. a.What are the five major elements identified in the Upanishads?
b. How are humans unique among the everyday world of elements we see around us?
c.What are the six sheaths discussed in part II of the Taittirya Upanishad (p. 34) and how do they relate to personal identity?
d.How does this discussion as well as the discussion (pp. 36-ff.) between Bhrigu and Varuna seem to support the idea that atman is completely the same as bliss?
4. a.Describe the details of the chariot analogy put forth in the Katha Upanishad (p. 51).
b.specifically, state what each part of the chariot is said to represent in human existence.
c.Summarize Nachiketa's answer to Yama regarding why the life of sense pleasures is not preferable to the life of being a true seeker of knowledge.(p. 45-49)
d.What is it about this answer that leads Schlitz (TwoChariots: The Justification of the Best Life in the Katha Upanishad and Plato's Phaedrus) to call it an "internalist" account?