Brains, Buddhas, and Believing: The Problem of Intentionality in Classical Buddhist and Cognitive-Scientific Philosophy of Mind

Condemning this truly refreshing comparative inquiry into a time-old question (vigorously renewed by the upsurge of modern neuroscience and philosophy of mind) by citing obscurantism is a hopelessly misguided gesture, especially since the prose, in my view, is clear as an instruction manual (doubly so considering most scholars are not so clear, in which case condemnation of obscurantism is at times justified. But then that rhetoric itself is a battle cry of the ignoramus, who is prone to deifying those wielding the technical jargon of the sciences while denying philosophy and the humanities of their art of linguistic idea-construction). Anyway rant is over, this is a worthy read for anyone interested in the confluence of subjects it deals with.

In response to the first reviewer of this book, I want to confirm that Brains, Buddhas, and Believing is an extremely difficult and challenging book intended for philosophers whose analytical skills are highly refined. That is not, however, a legitimate reason to give any book a lowly one-star rating. To criticize a peach for not being a turnip is to miss the point altogether and to misrepresent what something is. Dan Arnold's book is a brilliantly conceived, far-reaching effort to engage in cross-cultural and cross-historical philosophy, and its success deeply impressive. Its author is one of very few thinkers today capable of confronting important historical texts both in their own historical contexts and in full view of contemporary insights on the same issues that were being addressed in the original. Arnold employs current Western discussions of intentionality to illuminate what might have been at stake in early Buddhist philosophical debates, and the results shed revealing light on both traditions. This is contemporary thinking at its very best and deserves our praise and admiration rather than one-star ratings.

I'm sure Dan Arnold is a very smart guy and if you are PHD in philosophy at an Ivy league college this is the book for you. However for the rest of us with just average minds this book is painfully difficult to understand. I was very excited about the book when I first got it but after reading the introduction and first chapter I found that I didn't understand more than one sentence in ten. I thought maybe it was just me so I skipped around the book reading different sections and reading the last chapter and it was all just as meaningless. Perhaps I should say it was so meaningful that it was incomprehensible. It is written in the language of philosophers with no explanation of terminology, no examples of processes and just plan hard to read. Philosophers tend to tie themselves up in knots using language but this ball of tangled string was not something I had the time or desire to untangle. This book will not help you to understand the workings of the mind nor will it give you any greater joy in life. For that you should read something more accessible like Eckhart Tolle or Lama Anagarika Govinda.