Do Buddhists Believe the Moon Is Still There When Nobody Is Looking? | SOAS University of London

This seminar titled “Do Buddhists Believe the Moon Is Still There When Nobody Is Looking? Reflections on Realism, Anti-realism, and the Looping Structure of Buddhist Thought“ was given by Prof. Robert H. Sharf (Berkeley) on 15 May 2018 at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, SOAS University of London. Find out more at The first seminar will argue that the loop is indeed unavoidable, and that it is not merely analytic but existential. That is to say, the paradox is not merely the result of pushing up against the limits of language and thought, but, more fundamentally, it emerges from the fact that we are, inescapably, both subjects and objects to ourselves. In exploring the nature and significance of this conundrum, we will draw upon various Western philosophers, including Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and Nagel, each of whom finds himself entangled in the loop.