Western Philosophy from a Buddhist Perspective

Writer and essayist Jussi Ahlroth delivers a series of five lectures on key thinkers of Western philosophy from a Buddhist perspective. The series is based on his book "A Letter from Buddha - A Buddhist History of Western Philosophy" (SKS, autumn 2025).

2.9. Plato and Socrates - Two Ways of Doing Philosophy
Socrates deconstructs structures and leads his interlocutors into uncertainty, while Plato seeks permanence and builds unity. The tension between these two approaches has colored all of European philosophy.

9.9. Pyrrho and the Skeptical Tradition
Many scholars regard Pyrrho as Europe's first Buddhist: he describes Buddhist meditation in the language of Greek philosophy. The skeptical tradition that grew from Pyrrho's inspiration influenced the emergence of the modern era, as thinkers like Michel de Montaigne rediscovered ancient texts.

16.9. Descartes and Hume - The Question of the Self
Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is considered the beginning of modern philosophy, and Buddhism offers a new way to interpret it. Hume questions the self that Descartes found, and many of his ideas are recognizable from a Buddhist perspective.

23.9. Kant and Husserl - The Construction of Experience
Kant shifted philosophy's focus from studying the world to studying how the world is constructed in our experience. Husserl developed this into phenomenology, whose main method of reduction traces its roots to Pyrrho.

7.10. Heidegger and Derrida - The Ground of All
The connections between Heidegger's philosophy of being and Buddhism were recognized during his lifetime. Derrida, for his part, sketches what could never be expressed in a philosophy that operates through concepts, yet remains the foundation of philosophy and all experience.

Free admission, no registration required. Note: there is no lecture on 30.9.