6 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 2014

Date Written: October 22, 2014

Abstract

This entry discusses Buddhist teaching or the philosophy of Buddhism in practices found in mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia, as a political theory. Buddhist political thought dominates the daily lives of several Asian societies. The key difference between Buddhist political thought and Hobbesian political thought lies in how each school perceives the notion and the existence of the individual. Because the epistemic and ontological foundation of political thought in both schools is the existence of the individual, it is important that we properly understand how the individual is perceived to be existing in the world and how associational life emerges in both conceptions.