Examining the Bodhisattva’s Brain

There is growing interest in Asian traditions amongst Western-trained philosophers. A major contributing factor has been the publication in the past twenty years of several bold philosophical works that critically engage with positions advanced by Asian philosophical thinkers. The Bodhisattva's Brain [henceforth, BB] contributes to this emergent trend. BB is divided between two main lines of contention. The first half of the book critiques the recent 'science of happiness' literature, which correlates happiness with Buddhism on the basis of certain neurological studies. The second half aims to introduce analytic philosophers and " 21 st century scientifically informed secular thinkers " (xi) to the " deep structure of the metaphysics, epistemology and ethics of Buddhist philosophy " (xiii). Flanagan's methodology for this introduction is reconstructive (what he calls 'cosmopolitan') rather than strictly exegetical. That is, he aims to defend a conception of Buddhism that excludes reference to supernatural entities and philosophical commitments, which, in his view, have questionable epistemic warrant. Flanagan's Buddhism is intended to be " naturalized, tamed, and made compatible with a philosophy that is empirically responsible, and that does not embrace the low epistemic standards that permit all manner of superstition and nonsense. " (xiii) For the secular Western thinker with little familiarity with Buddhist thought, I believe BB succeeds in providing access to some of the central philosophical ideas in the Buddhist tradition. I also believe, and will argue below, that Flanagan's critique of the 'science of happiness' literature is strong, compelling and should be accepted by philosophically trained and untrained thinkers alike. Despite these clear strengths, I believe and shall attempt to demonstrate that the second half of BB is problematically limited in its critical engagement with Buddhist thought in ways that may not satisfy the analytically trained philosophical reader. In the opening chapters of BB, Flanagan offers a compelling critique of recent 'science of happiness' literature, of which he appears to have played some role in initiating. According to Flanagan, a central hypothesis of this literature is that there is a connection between Buddhism and happiness. This is thought to be confirmed by certain neurological studies conducted on Buddhist practitioners. Flanagan convincingly argues that this literature is insufficiently reflective about its presuppositions. He queries and challenges the object of these studies. Are they identifying happiness as a property of Buddhism (Does it make sense to attribute happiness to a tradition? Is this meant to apply …