The paper aims at analyzing selected examples of the rationalist discourse and its rhetorical techniques that can be found in the early Buddhist literature. The analysis will take into account the discursive practice depicted in the literature of the Pali Canon.
Paper long abstract:
The paper aims at analyzing the rhetorical techniques that can be found in the rationalist discourse of the earliest Buddhist literary sources. The analysis will take into account the discursive practices depicted in the literature of the Pali Canon, especially the dialogues of the Buddha with Brahmins. In particular I will analyze dialogues that involve the critical discourse on caste and arguments for its irrationality. In the next part I will reflect on a poem of Punnika from the Therigatha in which a Buddhist woman criticizes lack of critical reasoning of a Brahmin. I would conclude with reflecting on the rhetoric of the Kalama Sutta, which is one of the most frequently mentioned early texts in the context of current discourse on relations between Buddhism and science, and reflect on its arguments on rationality and skepticism.