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Book Cover for: Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism, Steven Collins

Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism

Steven Collins

This book explains the Buddhist doctrine of annattá ("not-self"), which denies the existence of any self, soul, or enduring essence in man. The author relates this doctrine to its cultural and historical context, particularly to its Brahman background. He shows how the Theravada Buddhist tradition has constructed a philosophical and psychological account of personal identity on the apparently impossible basis of the denial of self. Although the emphasis of the book is firmly philosophical, Dr. Collins makes use of a number of academic disciplines, particularly those of anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and comparative religion, in an attempt to discover the "deep structure" of Buddhist culture and imagination, and to make these doctrines comprehensible in terms of the western history of ideas.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • Publish Date: Nov 29th, 1990
  • Pages: 336
  • Language: English
  • Edition: Revised - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.08in - 0.99in - 1.10lb
  • EAN: 9780521397261
  • Categories: GeneralBuddhism - General (see also Philosophy - Buddhist)Eastern

Praise for this book

"...it succeeds also in its avowed aim of being a book entirely accessible to non-specialists, and will be of interest not only to students of the human sciences, but also to those who are students of themselves for other than, or at least for more than, academic reasons." The Times Literary Supplement