Roy W Perrett
Biographic Data
| ID | 461215 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Roy W Perrett |
| GIVEN NAMES | Roy W |
| FAMILY NAME | Perrett |
| SIGNATURE | PERRETT R W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Massey University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4539-5507 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The unreality of words
Buddhist idealism and the problem of other minds
This essay is concerned with Indian Yogācāra philosophers’ treatment of the problem of other minds in the face of a threatened collapse into solipsism suggested by Vasubandhu’s epistemological argument for idealism. I discuss the attempts of Dharmakīrti and Ratnakīrti to address this issue, concluding that Dharmakīrti is best seen as addressing the epistemological problem of other minds and Ratnakīrti as addressing the conceptual problem of other…
Future Generations and the Metaphysics of the Self
Our present actions can have effects on future generations - affecting not only the environment they will inherit, but even perhaps their very existence. This raises a number of important moral issues, many of which have only recently received serious philosophical attention. I begin by discussing some contemporary Western philosophical perspectives on the problem of our obligations to future generations, and then go on to consider how these appr…
Recognizing and Reacting to Value
Computationality, Mind and Value
Associated with the successful development of computer technology has been an increasing acceptance of computational theories of the mind. But such theories also seem to close the gap between ourselves and machines, threatening traditional notions of our special value as non-physical conscious minds. Prima facie, Sāmkhya-Yoga - the oldest school of classical Indian philosophy, with its dualism between purusa ('self', 'consciousness') and prakrti …
Computationality, Mind and Value
Buddhism, Abortion and the Middle Way
What have modern Buddhist ethicists to say about abortion and is there anything to be learned from it? A number of writers have suggested that Buddhism (particularly Japanese Buddhism) does indeed have something important to offer here: a response to the dilemma of abortion that is a 'middle way' between the pro-choice and pro-life extremes that have polarised the western debate. I discuss what this suggestion might amount to and present a defenc…
Libertarianism, Feminism, and Relative Identity
Is Whatever Exists Knowable and Nameable
Subsequent Naiyayikas take over and develop this thesis in various interesting ways, but my concern here is with its philosophical significance and plausibility, rather than its history.2 Nyaya understands this thesis to be fully convertible: not only are all existents knowable and nameable, but anything knowable or nameable exists. That is, not only is existence a universal property, but so, too, are knowability and nameability. Prima facie the …
History, Time, and Knowledge in Ancient India
The lack of interest in history in ancient India has often been noted and contrasted with the situation in China and the West. Notwithstanding the vast body of Indian literature in other fields, there is a remarkable dearth of historical writing in the period before the Muslim conquest and an associated indifference to historiography. Various explanations have been offered for this curious phenomenon, some of which appeal to the supposed currency…
Hindu Ethics
Truth, relativism and western conceptions of indian philosophy
We (relatively few) Western analytic philosophers who also work on classical Indian philosophy commonly encounter puzzlement or suspicion from our colleagues in Western philosophy because of our Indian interests. The ubiquity of these attitudes is itself revealing of Western conceptions of Indian philosophy, though their origins lie in cultural history often unknown to those who hold them. In the first part of this paper I relate a small but sign…
Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice
Religion and Politics in India
What is the traditional relation of religion to politics in India? Recent scholarly debate has generated at least two divergent answers. According to one view there is a long standing traditional opposition between religion and politics in India because its highest value (moksa) is renunciatory and asocial. According to another view a separation of religion from politics is contrary to Indian ways of thinking and the present currency of such a pi…
Confrontations with the Reaper
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Confrontations with the Reaper: a Philosophical Study of the Nature and Value of Death. By Fred Feldman. (Oxford UP, 1992. Pp. xiv + 249. Price £22.50.)The Metaphysics of Death. Edited by John Martin Fischer. ( Stanford UP, 1993. Pp. xiv + 423. Price $45.00 h/b, $16.95 p/b.) Roy W. Perrett Roy W. Perrett Massey University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosoph…
Virtue Ethics and Maori Ethics
There has been considerable recent interest among moral philosophers in the significance of the virtues for ethics and in the possibility of establishing virtue ethics as a normative theory distinct from deontological and consequentialist theories.' The main thesis of this essay is that traditional New Zealand Maori ethics is a virtue ethics. Our argument for this thesis is composed of three distinct, though frequently intertwined, strands. Descr…
Rebirth
Traditional Western conceptions of immortality characteristically presume that we come into existence at a particular time (birth or conception), live out our earthly span and then die. According to some, our death may then be followed by a deathless post-mortem existence. In other words, it is assumed that (i) we are born only once and die only once; and (ii) that – at least on some accounts – we are future-sempiternal creatures. The Western sec…
Regarding Immortality
Would personal immortality have any value for one so endowed? An affirmative answer would seem so obvious to some that they might be tempted to go so far as to claim that immortality is a condition of life's having any value at all. The claim that immortality is a necessary condition for the meaningfulness of life seems untenable. What, however, of the claim that immortality is a sufficient condition for the meaningfulness of life? Though some mi…
The Bodhisattva Paradox
A note on the Navya-nyāya account of number
Dualistic and Nondualistic Problems of Immortality
The Problem of Induction in Indian Philosophy
History, Time, and Knowledge in Ancient India
The lack of interest in history in ancient India has often been noted and contrasted with the situation in China and the West. Notwithstanding the vast body of Indian literature in other fields, there is a remarkable dearth of historical writing in the period before the Muslim conquest and an associated indifference to historiography. Various explanations have been offered for this curious phenomenon, some of which appeal to the supposed currency…
Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice
The Bodhisattva Paradox
A note on the Navya-nyāya account of number
The Problem of Induction in Indian Philosophy
A note on the Navya-nyāya account of number
Dualistic and Nondualistic Problems of Immortality
Regarding Immortality
Would personal immortality have any value for one so endowed? An affirmative answer would seem so obvious to some that they might be tempted to go so far as to claim that immortality is a condition of life's having any value at all. The claim that immortality is a necessary condition for the meaningfulness of life seems untenable. What, however, of the claim that immortality is a sufficient condition for the meaningfulness of life? Though some mi…
The Bodhisattva Paradox
Rebirth
Traditional Western conceptions of immortality characteristically presume that we come into existence at a particular time (birth or conception), live out our earthly span and then die. According to some, our death may then be followed by a deathless post-mortem existence. In other words, it is assumed that (i) we are born only once and die only once; and (ii) that – at least on some accounts – we are future-sempiternal creatures. The Western sec…
Virtue Ethics and Maori Ethics
There has been considerable recent interest among moral philosophers in the significance of the virtues for ethics and in the possibility of establishing virtue ethics as a normative theory distinct from deontological and consequentialist theories.' The main thesis of this essay is that traditional New Zealand Maori ethics is a virtue ethics. Our argument for this thesis is composed of three distinct, though frequently intertwined, strands. Descr…
Confrontations with the Reaper
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Confrontations with the Reaper: a Philosophical Study of the Nature and Value of Death. By Fred Feldman. (Oxford UP, 1992. Pp. xiv + 249. Price £22.50.)The Metaphysics of Death. Edited by John Martin Fischer. ( Stanford UP, 1993. Pp. xiv + 423. Price $45.00 h/b, $16.95 p/b.) Roy W. Perrett Roy W. Perrett Massey University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosoph…
Religion and Politics in India
What is the traditional relation of religion to politics in India? Recent scholarly debate has generated at least two divergent answers. According to one view there is a long standing traditional opposition between religion and politics in India because its highest value (moksa) is renunciatory and asocial. According to another view a separation of religion from politics is contrary to Indian ways of thinking and the present currency of such a pi…
Hindu Ethics
Truth, relativism and western conceptions of indian philosophy
We (relatively few) Western analytic philosophers who also work on classical Indian philosophy commonly encounter puzzlement or suspicion from our colleagues in Western philosophy because of our Indian interests. The ubiquity of these attitudes is itself revealing of Western conceptions of Indian philosophy, though their origins lie in cultural history often unknown to those who hold them. In the first part of this paper I relate a small but sign…
Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice
Is Whatever Exists Knowable and Nameable
Subsequent Naiyayikas take over and develop this thesis in various interesting ways, but my concern here is with its philosophical significance and plausibility, rather than its history.2 Nyaya understands this thesis to be fully convertible: not only are all existents knowable and nameable, but anything knowable or nameable exists. That is, not only is existence a universal property, but so, too, are knowability and nameability. Prima facie the …
History, Time, and Knowledge in Ancient India
The lack of interest in history in ancient India has often been noted and contrasted with the situation in China and the West. Notwithstanding the vast body of Indian literature in other fields, there is a remarkable dearth of historical writing in the period before the Muslim conquest and an associated indifference to historiography. Various explanations have been offered for this curious phenomenon, some of which appeal to the supposed currency…
Buddhism, Abortion and the Middle Way
What have modern Buddhist ethicists to say about abortion and is there anything to be learned from it? A number of writers have suggested that Buddhism (particularly Japanese Buddhism) does indeed have something important to offer here: a response to the dilemma of abortion that is a 'middle way' between the pro-choice and pro-life extremes that have polarised the western debate. I discuss what this suggestion might amount to and present a defenc…
Libertarianism, Feminism, and Relative Identity
Computationality, Mind and Value
Associated with the successful development of computer technology has been an increasing acceptance of computational theories of the mind. But such theories also seem to close the gap between ourselves and machines, threatening traditional notions of our special value as non-physical conscious minds. Prima facie, Sāmkhya-Yoga - the oldest school of classical Indian philosophy, with its dualism between purusa ('self', 'consciousness') and prakrti …
Computationality, Mind and Value
Future Generations and the Metaphysics of the Self
Our present actions can have effects on future generations - affecting not only the environment they will inherit, but even perhaps their very existence. This raises a number of important moral issues, many of which have only recently received serious philosophical attention. I begin by discussing some contemporary Western philosophical perspectives on the problem of our obligations to future generations, and then go on to consider how these appr…
Recognizing and Reacting to Value
Buddhist idealism and the problem of other minds
This essay is concerned with Indian Yogācāra philosophers’ treatment of the problem of other minds in the face of a threatened collapse into solipsism suggested by Vasubandhu’s epistemological argument for idealism. I discuss the attempts of Dharmakīrti and Ratnakīrti to address this issue, concluding that Dharmakīrti is best seen as addressing the epistemological problem of other minds and Ratnakīrti as addressing the conceptual problem of other…
The unreality of words
Philosophy (20 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (10 works) · Theology (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Buddhism (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Indian History and Philosophy (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Mathematics (5 works)