Digressions 1

Question 1

There are two approaches to dealing with scarcity. Which are they?

Answer 1

“Western” vs. reaction to scarcity in Buddhism

Question 2

How do most “western” economists try to deal with scarcity?

Answer 2

Most “Western” economists try to find out how scarcity can be alleviated by increasing means (Through technological progress, growth etc.)
==> the reaction points outward: increasing the means to fulfill the given wants

This impulse is even reflected in the idea of individual freedom (by and large conceptualizatied in the Western tradition as polital freedom: as the absence of external compulsion)

Question 3

How does one deal with scarcity in Buddhism?

Answer 3

The reaction to scarcity in Buddhism points inwards: overcoming the wants to make them match the means

Question 4

Which are the so-called noble truths in Buddhism?

Answer 4

1. Dukkha exists
2. Dukkha arises from one’s attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing Eithfold Path

Question 5

What is Dukkha?

Answer 5

Dukkha is often translated as suffering, but this blurs the meaning. It refers to misaligned desires and needs or, in other words, scarcity

Question 6

What is freedom according to Buddhism?

Answer 6

Freedom according to this view is interior freedom:
Autonomy from the “dictatorship” of desires.

Question 7

What is Effective altruism?

Answer 7

Effective altruism makes the point that one should think in terms of opportunity costs when one makes one’s decision: what are the alternatives uses for one’s money and how much good could be done with the different uses?

Question 8

What are the two characteristics of a homo oeconomics?

Answer 8

• He/she can rank the alternatives from which he/she can choose according to some relation representing his/her preferences (ordering)
  • Individuals always choose the best alternative that is available to them (maximization)
    ==> the maximization of a preference ordering is the core of the rational-choice paradigm which is integral to the concept of homo oeconomicus

Question 9

Why is the homo oeconomicus under criticism?

Answer 9

• Preferences need not to be transitive
  
  • individuals do not consistently choose alternatives that are best for them
  • People do not act selfishly in a number of situations

Question 10

Why is the concept of the homo oeconomicus still helpful?

Answer 10

it still helps to better understand the structure of limited rationality and non-selfish behavior, even if everyone agrees that real people often deviate from the ideal of rational decision-making

Question 11

What is transcending reason?

Answer 11

The necessesity of a dogmatic starting point of any scientific research project points towards the limits of language in expressing reality. Some spiritual traditions even claim that some truths can and must be assessed by means other than scientific reasoning - for example an act of revelation - and that reason is not a means of perceiving the truth but an obstacle on the way.

==> This thought is most clearly expressed in Zen Buddhism, where the practice of meditation leads to a state of pure consciousness in which one sees the world as it really is.

In order to get closer to this state, students are expected to work on kaans which from the pov of a western understanding, are unanswerable questions or meaningless statements.
The goal is the evocation of an existential crisis of rational thinking, which then transcends itself in the moment of satori.
A distance is created between the convention of everyday thinking and the immediately perceived world, whereby the convention becomes recognizable as such.