Synopses & Reviews
Though contemporary European philosophy and critical theory have long had a robust engagement with Christianity, there has been no similar engagement with Buddhism—a surprising lack, given Buddhism’s global reach and obvious affinities with much of Continental philosophy. This volume fills that gap, focusing on “nothing”—essential to Buddhism, of course, but also a key concept in critical theory from Hegel and Marx through deconstruction, queer theory, and contemporary speculative philosophy. Through an elaboration of emptiness in both critical and Buddhist traditions; an examination of the problem of praxis in Buddhism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis; and an explication of a “Buddhaphobia” that is rooted in modern anxieties about nothingness,
Nothing opens up new spaces in which the radical cores of Buddhism and critical theory are renewed and revealed.
Review
“I have contemplated and endured ‘nothing’ for so long that it did not seem right to break my practice or offer other readers something like insight, possibly a moment of sense making and affirmation. But I break out of my trance to assert the emphatic necessity of this book, so erudite without loading us down, relentless in its ability to resignify. Sassy, brilliant, a genuine engagement with and of thought, this work tunes us to a thrilling, endorphinating way of thinking: my drug of choice.”
Synopsis
The three extended essays in this book provide a set of much-needed inquiries into the connections between Buddhism and critical theory. Both Buddhism and critical theory struggle with the same contemporary forces, from ecological peril to psycho-social violence, and they both offer radically negative critiques of the present as well as utopian postures toward the future. Like other books in the innovative TRIOS series, this one offers readers ambitious essays produced through long-standing conversation among three challenging thinkers. The first essay, by Marcus Boon, explores the politics of sunyata or emptiness as they emerged from 1936 to 1976 in the wake moments of political crisis for both Buddhism and Marxism. Boon illuminates the role of Buddhism in the work of the French philosopher Georges Bataille, the Buddhist politics of the Tibetan writer Gendun Chopel, and the Buddhist anarchism” of Gary Snyder. Eric Cazdyns essay reveals a shared function between the Buddhist category of enlightenment,” the Marxist category of revolution,” and the psychoanalytic category of cure.” The third essay in this trio, by Timothy Morton, explores a phenomenon he calls Buddhaphobia,” a fear of Buddhism he attributes to modernitys anxieties about nothingness. Morton argues that critical theory can speak to our dark ecological future only if it attends to current forms of economic and social nihilismand challenge in which Buddhism can serve critical theory as an ally.
About the Author
Marcus Boon is professor of English at York University in Toronto.Eric Cazdyn is Distinguished Professor of Aesthetics and Politics at the University of Toronto.Timothy Morton is the Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University in Houston, Texas.