Buddhist and East Asian Philosophy
The development of Buddhist thought from its Indian origins through its transformation across China, Japan, Korea, and Tibet.
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The life and teaching of the historical Buddha and the foundational doctrines of suffering, impermanence, and the path to liberation.
The rise of the Mahayana movement and Nagarjuna's radical philosophy of emptiness, which reshaped Buddhist metaphysics and set the direction of later Buddhist thought across Asia.
The Yogacara school's analysis of consciousness and its idealist account of experience as the foundation of Buddhist epistemology.
The distinctive meditative and philosophical culture of Japanese Buddhism, from the transmission and founding of the Zen schools to Dogen's metaphysics of practice, alongside the parallel Pure Land and esoteric traditions that shaped medieval Japanese religious life.
The flourishing of Neo-Confucian metaphysics and moral philosophy in Joseon Korea, centered on the Four-Seven Debate over the nature of the mind.
The synthesis of Indian Buddhist philosophy, tantra, and indigenous Bon traditions that produced Tibet's distinctive scholastic and contemplative schools.
The twentieth-century project, led by Nishida Kitaro and his successors, that brought Zen Buddhist insight into critical dialogue with Western philosophy.