Customer Reviews

Fifty Eastern Thinkers (Routledge Key Guides)

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I am really only familiar enough with the Buddhist material to make a critical assessment on that, but what I encountered was not encouraging. The authors seem to have a very limited grasp of the material, drawn entirely from secondary sources, and they make erroneous assertions that are dead wrong and quite misleading. For instance, they state repeatedly "Theravada Buddhism divided into the Vaibhasika and Sautrantika schools" (pg 95). That is flat out wrong. "Theravada" is not a synonym for "Sravaka," the term that would have been appropriate in this case. The Vaibhasika and Sautrantika schools are both Sarvastivadin schools, not Theravada at all, and they are certainly not the only Sravaka schools, as the authors imply, or even the only Sthaviravada schools, if that's what they meant.

I consider it disgraceful that they would take money to write a seemingly authoritative book when they are apparently in no position to do so competently. The mere fact that they barely address the dated Orientalist notion that there is such thing as an "eastern thinker" is the first indication of trouble. Don't waste your time with this, there are much better sources available.