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Demandingness, Self-Interest And Benevolence In Śāntideva’S Introduction To The Practice Of Awakening (Bodhicaryāvatāra), Stephen E. Harris

Philosophy ETDs

This dissertation explores how benevolence and self-interest converge, thereby lessening moral demandingness, in the writing of the eighth century Indian Buddhist monk, Śāntideva. In the opening chapter, I argue that Śāntideva appears vulnerable to the overdemandingness objection, the claim that a moral system asks too much of its followers. This is because he endorses an extremely demanding process of virtue development during which an individual commits to becoming a bodhisattva, the Buddhist saint who voluntarily takes countless rebirths, often in painful situations, in order to attain full Buddhahood and liberate all beings from suffering. In the dissertation, I show that …