Publisher's Synopsis
"Bridge of the Enlightenments" is a study in the history of ideas which establishes the hitherto (mostly)unknown link between the Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha and the European Enlightenment (a.k.a. Age of Reason) and explores the continuing Buddhist influences on Western thought in philosophy, psychology and the cutting-edge contemporary disciplines of cognitive science and evolutionary biology.This work traces some seminal developments in the history of ideas transmitted over several centuries and fills some gaps in world intellectual history. Some of the Western philosophers and scientists who are not widely known to have had extensive Buddhist influence (directly or mediately) covered include David Hume and George Berkeley, William James and Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud and Jean Paul Sartre, Gregory Bateson and Francisco Varela, to name a few.In addition to being a contribution to the history of ideas, these essays seek to correct some widely held misconceptions concerning Buddhist thought and praxis and critique from a Buddhist perspective some fundamental theories enjoying great vogue which are now virtual scientific orthodoxy such as brain=mind identity.
