This thesis investigates the topic of natural law in the Therav āda and Thomistic traditions by utilizing the methodology of comparative religious ethics. Approaches to the method such as ethical formalism, ethical naturalism, and narrative ethics are assessed with the author opting for a multidimensional approach that is religious and ethical. This multidimensional approach, as defined by William Schweiker, conducts natural law inquiry from a hermeneutical standpoint of moral diversity and democratic pluralism. The hermeneutical standpoint warrants a historicizing of natural law ethics that is compatible with modern secularity instead of a classicist metaphysical worldview. To achieve this task, the thought of moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre and Jewish theologian David Novak is used to formulate a concept of a natural law tradition. Three normative features define the natural law traditions in question: rationality as tradition- constituted, revelation as a historical phenomenon, and natural law as a cultural construct that is both comparative and ontological. The central claim of this thesis is that the Theravāda and Thomistic traditions provide a similar conceptual apparatus for rational discourse that can locate ethical commonalities and respect differences across traditions. The commonality between traditions is secured in natural law ethics because these traditions adhere to a constitutive truth that is the objective ground of all truths and of nature which designates a shared humanity. On the other hand, these natural law traditions are able to at least respect difference because they recognize the autonomy of other traditions outside of and pre- existing their own. Natural law ethics in these religious traditions therefore avoids the ethical challenges of relativism and authoritarianism. Both traditions define a concept of "nature" with a proper teleological orientation for the moral life. "Nature" is an open category in these traditions that can never be fully defined. This demonstrates how these natural law traditions avoid ontological violence. The overall claim is that natural law ethics, which are evident in the Therav āda and Thomistic traditions, offer something essential to a pluralistic secular democracy: an unconditioned view of human dignity that protects inalienable rights because it is secured by a higher law than civil laws.

As a South Asian iteration of “modern Buddhism,” Ambedkarite Buddhism’s place in the modern Euro-American Religious Studies academy has been under-articulated and, considering the profile of its founding figure, this absence is conspicuous. By providing a detailed exposition of the unique and defining features of Ambedkarite Buddhism this project aims to address this gap in the literature. B.R. Ambedkar’s position as a Dalit, activist, Columbia University-trained scholar, pragmatist, and Buddhist offers a unique point of departure to re-examine some of the core assumptions about Buddhist approaches to ethics and action in the world. This dissertation aims to articulate a theological (or dharmalogical) framework at work in Ambedkar’s American Pragmatist-inspired, social justice-oriented Buddhism. Inside India, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is perhaps the single most well-known and revered social justice figure for the oppressed classes of all time, with numerous universities, neighborhoods, roads, foundations, and airports named in his honor. And yet, his profile has remained largely provincial. As a major religious leader in India, Dr. Ambedkar is almost completely obscured by Gandhi’s shadow in the Euro-American mind, yet it was his deep interest in religion and his famous public conversion to Buddhism, along with millions of his followers, that animated so much of his action and continues to inspire his followers today. In his introduction to The Buddha and His Dhamma Ambedkar identified four main problems that, in his view, hindered the Buddhist tradition in its ability to reach its potential as the religion most adapted to modernity. This dissertation is organized around those questions, as Ambedkar framed them. First, Ambedkar was dissatisfied with traditional explanations for the Siddhārtha’s decision to leave his comfortable palace life in pursuit of the life of a renunciate. In place of the psycho-spiritual angst that drives the Siddhārtha found in most traditional source texts, Ambedkar presents Siddhārtha as a socially-motivated renunciate in his Buddha narrative. The second problem relates to the set of teachings commonly known as the “four noble truths.” He sees these teachings as problematic for various reasons, including that, in his view, they lead to nihilism, and he seeks to undermine their authority while offering an alternative frame. The third problem relates to the Buddhist teachings on karma and rebirth. He argues that Brahminical readings of these terms have inflected Buddhist understandings of them and consequently rendered them incompatible with the Buddha’s intended meaning. He seeks to clarify the Buddha’s original intent regarding these terms. The fourth and final problem relates to the community of monks and nuns. Specifically, Ambedkar seeks to rectify an inconsistency he identifies between the social message of the Buddha as he understands it and the inward orientation of the monastic saṅgha as he sees it around the Buddhist world. Ambedkar succeeded in the creation of a pan-Indian anti-caste movement, the likes of which had never before been seen. Instead of rejecting religion completely, as perhaps may be expected of a Western educated, liberal-minded thinker whose disaffection with Hinduism was near total, he instead moved toward it. His enchantment with the Buddha from a young age as the first and most effective anti-Brahminical champion of equality coupled with his sense of the need for a social consciousness to morally orient not only Dalits but all of Indian society inspired him to pragmatically carve out a Buddhism that he found fit for the job. / Religion

This dissertation studies the social and ethical implications of the core Buddhist teaching of Interdependent Co-Arising, which is the logic of Buddhist reasoning and the guiding principle of Buddhist ethics. By appealing to the Nikaya-s, the foundational texts recognized by all Buddhist schools on the one hand, and referencing contemporary socio-economic studies and poststructuralist feminist theories on the other, I revive and theorize about a dynamic sense of Buddhist social ethics, examine its relevance in the contemporary world, and make it acceptable and accessible to the largest number of Buddhists and non-Buddhist scholars and activists. This approach of appropriating non-Buddhist sources in order to make the Buddhist Dhamma relevant in alleviating dukkha is grounded in the Buddha's own teachings and examples. Poststructuralist feminist theories not only offer a much needed critique to the pervasive androcentrism in Buddhist circles, but are also useful in capturing the dynamic complexities that are conveyed by the teaching of Interdependent Co-Arising. In poststructuralist feminist language, any individual subject is a socio-psycho-physical compound shaped and delimited by socio-cultural sedimentations as well as by his/her mental formations, hence the Buddhist teaching of Non-Self. At the same time, it is due to people's repeated actions that socio-cultural sedimentations are formed and dukkha is created and perpetuated in the world. Therefore, in the Buddha's teachings, kamma inevitably has a social dimension and demands attention to the dukkha-producing social norms. Ethics is thus not a set of rigid, inalterable rules, but an ongoing process of striving to be ethical in the midst of ever-changing relations among ever-changing beings. And Sangha, one of the Three Jewels in which all Buddhists take refuge, is not a closed community bound by blood relation or geographical proximity, but an unending effort of building communities and working interconnections with multiple different others. The cessation of dukkha, in this view, is not a static existence where nothing happens, but a dynamic endeavor of working on one's behavioral, emotive, and conceptual transformation in order to alleviate dukkha and continuingly make peace in this world. It requires the participation of everyone entangled in the interconnected web of life. / Religion

This dissertation discusses the Singalovada suttanta, a text which is part of the Pali Canon and variants of which are also found in the Mahayana corpus. The Pali Text Society edition of this text is translated into both English and Afrikaans, and its place within the greater scheme of Buddhist religious philosophy and canonical literature is examined. It is concluded that the Singalovada suttanta is an integral part of Buddhist ethical teaching and that it displays clear connections to fundamental early Buddhist philosophy. The text is also checked for internal coherence and for variation between its different versions. It is shown how the ethical principles and practices that are expounded in the singalovada Suttanta can be applied to life in a modern society, and what this implies for the relationship between contemporary society, philosophy, religion and ethics generally / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

This dissertation discusses the Singalovada suttanta, a text which is part of the Pali Canon and variants of which are also found in the Mahayana corpus. The Pali Text Society edition of this text is translated into both English and Afrikaans, and its place within the greater scheme of Buddhist religious philosophy and canonical literature is examined. It is concluded that the Singalovada suttanta is an integral part of Buddhist ethical teaching and that it displays clear connections to fundamental early Buddhist philosophy. The text is also checked for internal coherence and for variation between its different versions. It is shown how the ethical principles and practices that are expounded in the singalovada Suttanta can be applied to life in a modern society, and what this implies for the relationship between contemporary society, philosophy, religion and ethics generally / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)