Sean Smith, Graduate Student, University of Toronto
In the past two decades, much ink has been spilled extolling the many ways in which Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice can have a generative impact on discussions in western philosophy (Garfield 2015), cognitive science (Varela et al. 1991) and neuroscience (Lutz et al. 2007; Lutz et al. 2008). The purpose of this paper is to consider the possibility of a reverse trend of influence (cf. Garfield 2011). I propose to show how Western philosophy and neuroscience can help to adjudicate philosophical disputes indigenous to Buddhism, in this case, the question is about the relation between attention and the self.
