Reply: Before ‘Post-Zen’: A Discussion of Buddhist Ethics

Abstract

It is one of the main contentions of this paper that Buddhist ethics remains just as it was before, after one has considered Professor Canfield’s talk about ‘post-Zen’, and that what is called ‘post-Zen’ has little or nothing to do with Buddhism as such. Although I have tried to interpret Canfield’s paper sympathetically, on the basis of the draft received for comment I do not believe that he has shown either that what is called ‘post-Zen’ has importance for the interpretation of the historical development of Buddhist ethics in particular, or that an increase in conceptual clarity about any significant philosophical thesis results from considering what he has said so far.