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A NEW WAY OF APPROACH IN
BUDDHIST STUDIES
- In the Light of Comparative Philosophy,
Hajime NAKAMURA
Tokyo University
A. The Problem of Comparative Studies I. Reflection upon Buddhist Studies in the Past
It has been a common tendency of scholars of Buddhism in both the East and the West that they launch their studies chiefly in philological respects. Scholars first collect materials necessary for their own studies. Among materials manuscripts are most important for studies of Buddhist thought; inscriptions, coins, masterpieces of art, and archaeological findings are also occasionally very helpful for them. Manuscripts are edited carefully and critically by competent scholars who have strictly been disciplined in a philological method. To edit fundamental texts critically is the first step to take. Then these texts should be translated into languages familiar to the scholars, and critical annotations should be set forth in footnotes. With this process alone scholars can engage themselves in scientific studies. Having these materials at their command they launch their studies in various directions. In the field of philology they compare similar words with each other, explain them etymologically, make their meanings clear; they compile vocabularies and dictionaries; they systematise grammar of languages. Using these results of studies they write history of various fields of culture, and describe geography or ethnography as thoroughly as possible. This is the way scholars of ancient cultures take, and scholars of Buddhist culture
are not exceptions to it. . In the field of Buddhist studies there have been published so many works of excellent scholarship. In so far as philological studies are concerned, I would venture to say that there is left nothing which might be found fault with in works of masters of various countries. However, with regard to philosophical studies, it is likely that there has been left much which should have been done up to now.
There have been published many works entitled "Indian Philosophy" or "Buddhist Philosophy" in both the East and the West. However,
