1 Death & Identity: A Philosophical Comparison Between East & West Christopher Thomas Green Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies September 2016 2 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2016 The University of Leeds Christopher Thomas Green. The right of Christopher Thomas Green to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 3 Acknowledgements I must start by thanking my family, particularly my grandparents, to whom this Ph.D is dedicated. Without their sacrifices and help this would not have been achievable. Special thanks must go to Elizabeth Pender who throughout my MA year worked tirelessly with me to create the foundations for this thesis, and whose supervision has been invaluable through the long process of bringing a Ph.D to completion. Without her guidance none of this would be possible. I must thank my co-supervisor, Malcolm Heath, whose insight and feedback I value greatly. Both supervisors have helped me shape and develop a tentative idea into a reality; to them both I am forever grateful. I would also like to thank my undergraduate dissertation supervisor Niall McKeown who originally inspired and gave me the confidence to do an MA and tackle a Ph.D. Thanks must also be given to Leeds University Classics Department, without their funding for three years of sustained research this thesis would never have been possible. I would also like to thank those that helped this project develop along the way; specifically, Amber Carpenter for discussing Indian philosophy, Jay Kennedy for examining a draft of an important chapter, and all who attended the Northern Association for Ancient Philosophy in 2013 for listening and discussing my paper. Your contribution helped gauge the reception my work would receive. Lastly there are those friends who I have met along the way: Andreas Gavrielatos, Samuel Gartland, Tacita Wilcox, and my fellow Platonists Fabio Serranito and Chuanjie Sheng. 4 Abstract This thesis offers a thought experiment on death and identity: can one solve interpretational problems in one cultural text through a Comparative Methodology with another cultural text? I make two claims: that cultures distinct in time or geography can have Shared Concerns regarding death and identity; and that using cultural texts with Shared Concerns helps solve interpretational problems within the framework of one of the cultural texts. The methodology is designed to tease out existing, yet implicit, notions within cultural texts. I offer two test-cases for the Comparative Methodology. Firstly, I put Plato’s Phaedo in dialogue with the Buddhist Milindapañha. I analyse specific Shared Concerns between the texts before attempting to solve the problem of moral accountability in Phaedo. I do so by using John Locke’s ideas on identity as a philosophical and terminological framework. Secondly, I analyse Empedocles’ poem with the Indian Kaṭha Upaniṣad as an added test-case to the Comparative Methodology. Specifically, the philosophical concern for Empedocles regards identity and moral accountability in a possible form of liberation. To what extent is the purification and possible liberation of the daimon morally conditioned, and does (self) understanding lead to a possible form of liberation? 5 To my Grandparents ‘I survive, To mock the expectation of the world’ - William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part II 6 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................9 SECTION 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 THE COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 10 1.2 WHY PHAEDO & EMPEDOCLES? ....................................................................................................... 13 1.3 WHY INDIA? ..................................................................................................................................... 14 1.4 A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ................................................................................................................. 15 1.5 WHY LOCKE? .................................................................................................................................... 17 1.6 WHAT IS GAINED? ............................................................................................................................. 18 1.7 WHY DEATH AND IDENTITY? ............................................................................................................ 19 1.8 WHAT ARE THE RISKS? ...................................................................................................................... 20 1.9 PREVIOUS COMPARATIVE SCHOLARSHIP ON PLATO AND EMPEDOCLES ............................................ 25 1.10 CHAPTER OUTLINE ......................................................................................................................... 29 SECTION 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 32 2.1 CONTEXTUALISING – A VERY BRIEF INDIAN PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY ............................................. 32 2.2 VEDAS .............................................................................................................................................. 34 2.3 UPANIṢADS ........................................................................................................................................ 36 2.4 ŚRAMAṆA MOVEMENT ....................................................................................................................... 40 2.5 THE BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM .......................................................................................................... 42 2.6 EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE ........................................................................................................ 45 2.7 KARMA AND REBIRTH ........................................................................................................................ 46 2.8 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................... 49 PART ONE: PHAEDO AND MILINDAPAÑHA ................................................................................... 50 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER 1: DESIRE AND PURIFICATION .................................................................................... 54 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 54 1.1. MILINDAPAÑHA ................................................................................................................................. 54 1.1.1 The Noble Truths of Buddhist Thought .................................................................................... 54 1.1.2 Desire: Craving the Corporeal ................................................................................................ 58 1.1.3 Purification: The Body as Wound ............................................................................................ 62 1.2 PHAEDO ............................................................................................................................................ 63 1.2.1 Death and a Soul’s Craving for the Corporeal ........................................................................ 64 1.2.2 Afterlife Myth: Association and Dissociation after Death ....................................................... 75 1.2.3 Immortality and Caring for the Soul – Soul ‘Type 5’ as a Potentiality .................................... 81 1.3 SHARED CONCERNS .......................................................................................................................... 85 1.3.1 Death’s Appeal ......................................................................................................................... 86 1.3.2 Craving Corporeality ............................................................................................................... 88 1.3.3 The Seas of Life ........................................................................................................................ 92 1.3.4 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 97 CHAPTER 2: IDENTITY AND MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN PHAEDO ................................. 99 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 99 2.1 THE PROBLEM