Milinda’s Questions

Lotta good stuff out there today.

Found a couple of good sources on the Abhidhamma. One’s an online book by Nina Van Gorkom called Abhidhamma in Daily Life. The other is an online course (in 90 lessons!), originally given by John D. Hughes of the Buddhist Discussion Centre in Australia, and published in that organization’s online Buddha Dhyana Dana Review. The course, as published, apparently begins with Lesson Six in Vol. 12, Number 4, 2002 (Lessons One through Five may be online somewhere, but I couldn’t locate them), and continues on through Lesson 90, presented in 2004.

Back in the western cultural sphere: This being the 21st of the month, it’s time to pay a visit to Richard Chappell’s blog, Philosophy, etc.
All of Richard’s current posts look thought-provoking, and worth a lot more than the cursory skimming I’ve given them; but since this is my first blogvisit to P. etc., I want to call attention to perhaps the most interesting feature of his site: the way he handles the Introduction/About Me/Welcome to This Blog tasks that are one feature of a reader-friendly blog. (Yeah, I know, I don’t have one; I have, believe it or not, been working on one recently, which is one reason I find the way Richard handles it particularly interesting.) From his Introduction page, he links to a page entitled My Web of Beliefs, on which he provides a brief systematic overview of the standard range of philosophical topics: epistemology, religion, ethics, politics, logic and rationality, reality and modality, and mind. Another feature: Richard rewrites this piece annually , so that we can see how his positions develop over time. Neat. (Actually, there are only two versions online, those from 2004 and 2005, but here at this blog I’m hardly in a position to throw stones at anyone for not diligently carrying out every single intention he’s announced.)

As always, some interesting stuff at Crooked Timber. Henry Farrell has a review of a book called The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse. Between them, the book, the review and the ensuing discussion pretty conclusively tear apart the “blogosphere/18th century coffeehouse/public sphere” meme. And Chris Bertram provides a link to an online paper by Avi Pasternak entitled “Sanctioning Liberal Democracies.” One sometimes hears claims to the effect that, say, since Israel is a democracy while its Arab neighbors aren’t, other democracies such as the U.S. have a responsibility to defend and support the Israelis no matter what they do. Pasternak argues that, to the contrary, democracies should be held to a higher moral standard than nondemocratic regimes.