Attached Paper In-person November Annual Meeting 2025

The metaphysical interpretation of Buddhaghosa: a defence

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This presentation challenges the interpretation by Maria Heim and Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad that Buddhaghosa’s work is purely phenomenological and not metaphysical. Heim and Ram-Prasad argue that Buddhaghosa is not concerned with the nature of existence but with training attention toward experience. In contrast, the presentation contends that Buddhaghosa makes genuine metaphysical claims about what exists.