Kenneth Liberman (University of Oregon)

submitted: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:38:44 -0700 (PDT)
 
Kenneth Liberman
Associate Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies
Department of Sociology
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403  USA

phone: 503-345-5008
FAX:   503-346-5027
email: liberman@darkwing.uoregon.edu

description of work:

I am presently completing a study of Tibetan philosophical culture,
based upon an ethnomethodological analysis of two dozen debates on
Madhyamika recorded during three years of residence at Gelug and Sakya
monasteries in India. The debates were recorded in Tibetan,
transcribed, and translated into English. My particular interest is
the benefits and limitations of formal analytic reasoning for
philosophical inquiries into truth and for Buddhist spiritual
development. I am identifying in its local detail what about Gelug
debate is original and what is sophistic, and I am investigating
whether it is possible to distinguish boundaries between philosophy
and sophistry or whether they necessarily accompany each other.

I also have an interest in a number of phenomenological and postmodern
themes, and am pursuing comparative studies of negative dialectics as
found in the Continental and Madhyamika traditions.  Finally, I am
working on a translation of the First Panchen Lama's Bdag 'dzin gshags
'debs ("Refuting the Habit of Reification"), a comical debate between
Wisdom and Self-grasping.