Edelglass, W.

Edelglass, W. on the DRL

Authors of English Works • Professors

English Phonetics	William Edelglass

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

Marlboro College

Education

Ph.D., Emory University, 2004 M.A., Emory University, 1999 B.A., St. John’s College, 1993

Biographical Information

William teaches on the history of Western philosophy, non-Western philosophy, and contemporary thought. His courses often engage disciplines outside of philosophy, including literature and art, the cognitive and behavioral sciences, Asian studies, religious studies, and environmental studies. Recent courses have included: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit; Antigone and Philosophy; Understanding Happiness: Philosophy, Religion, Science; Emptiness and Form: Philosophical and Literary Expressions of the Dharma; The Genealogy of Race; Moral Theory and Contemporary Science; Critical Theory From Marx to Nancy Fraser; Environmental Philosophy; Interdisciplinary Seminar on Climate Change; Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Attention, Mindfulness, and Contemplation; Heidegger’s Being and Time; Philosophy of Place; and Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics.
      William has published widely in Buddhist philosophy, environmental philosophy, and 20th-century European philosophy. Recent projects include work on: phenomenology and climate ethics; rethinking faith and reason in Indian Buddhism; Buddhism and human dignity; the limits of language; deep time; and happiness and the science of meditation. His work has been supported by grants from the Templeton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the International Association of Environmental Philosophy and co-editor of the journal Environmental Philosophy. William is also co-editor of Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings (Oxford University Press, 2009), the Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2011), and Facing Nature: Levinas and Environmental Thought. William also serves on the editorial boards for a number of journals. For more on his scholarly work, see a recent interview William did with 3:AM Magazine and another with Insight Journal, or this conversation with William on the Imperfect Buddha Podcast. (Source Accessed May 7, 2020)

Publications

• “Aspiration, Conviction, and Serene Joy: Faith and Reason in Indian Buddhist Literature on the Path.” Forthcoming in Beyond Faith Versus Reason: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Sonia Sikka and Ashwani Peetush. Routledge, 2020.

• “The Ethics of Difference and Singularity: Levinas, Responsibility, and Climate Change,” Forthcoming in Moral Theory and Climate Change: Ethical Perspectives on a Warming Planet. Edited by Dale E. Miller and Ben Eggleston. (Routledge, 2020).

• “Human Dignity in Chinese Buddhism.” Forthcoming in Chinese and Western Perspectives on Human Dignity: Contributions from Philosophy and Applied Ethics. Edited by Marcus Düwall, Li Jianhui, Wang Xiawei, Dascha Düring, and Gerhard Bos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

• “‘That is why the Buddha Laughs’: Apophasis, Buddhist Practice, and the Paradox of Language.” Journal of Dharma Studies, vol. 1, no. 2 (2019): 201-14.

• “Buddhism, Happiness, and the Science of Meditation.” In Meditation, Buddhism, and Science in Context: Humanistic Scholarship and the Scientific Study of Meditation. Edited by David L. McMahan and Erik Braun (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017): 62-83.

• “Mindfulness and Moral Transformation: Awakening to Others in Śāntideva’s Ethics.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Ethics, edited by Shyam Ranganathan (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 225-248.

• “Buddhist Ethics and Western Moral Philosophy.” In The Blackwell Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, edited by Stephen Emmanuel (London: Blackwell, 2013).

• “Rethinking Responsibility in an Age of Anthropogenic Climate Catastrophe.” In Facing Nature: Levinas and Environmental Thought, edited by William Edelglass, James Hatley, and Christian Diehm (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2012), 209-228.

• “Facing Nature After Levinas.” Co-written with James Hatley and Christian Diehm. In Facing Nature: Levinas and Environmental Thought, edited by William Edelglass, James Hatley, and Christian Diehm (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2012), 1-10.

• “Philosophy and place-based pedagogies.” In Teaching Philosophy, Andrea Kenkmann (ed.) (London: Continuum, 2009), 69-80.

• “Ethics and the subversion of conceptual reification in Levinas and Śāntideva.” In Deconstruction and the Ethical in Asian Thought, Youru Wang (ed.) (New York: Routledge, 2007), 151-61.

• “Levinas on suffering and compassion.” Sophia 45(2) (2006): 43-59.

• “Moral pluralism, skillful means and environmental ethics.” Environmental Philosophy 3(2) (2006): 8-16.

• “Asymmetry and normativity: Levinas reading Dostoevsky on desire, responsibility and suffering.” Analecta Husserliana 85 (2005): 719-36.

• “Levinas’s Language.” Analecta Husserliana, vol. 85 (2005): 47-62.

• “Merleau-Ponty and Dufrenne on Truth in Art.” Phenomenological Inquiry 28 (2004): 99-115.

Links

Wiki Pages

• Edelglass, W. on the DRL
• Edelglass, W. on the LIB
• Edelglass, W. on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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Full Name

William Edelglass

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.