This talk applies a new tool for Global Philosophy that I call Cosmopolitan Pragmatism to a pair of Buddhist texts. Cosmopolitan Pragmatism builds on the early Conceptualistic Pragmatism of C. I. Lewis to perform transparadigmatic reconception, i.e. the amelioration of contemporary concepts by means of foreign thought. The Buddhist texts to be leveraged are the Mahāyāna Buddhist Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines (Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtram) and the Chinese Buddhist Things Do Not Shift (物不遷論), and the concepts to be reconceived are THREAT and PERMANENCE. Further consideration will be given to the prospects for Pragmatic Conceptual Engineering and reperception through reconception, which refers to intentionally altering what is conceived in order to change what is perceived.

The Philosophy of C. I. Lewis:

Lewis, C. I. “A Pragmatic Conception of the A Priori.” Journal of Philosophy 20, no. 7 (1923): 169-177. 

Conceptual Engineering:

Isaac, M. G., et al. “Conceptual Engineering: A Road Map to Practice.” Philosophy Compass 17 (2022): 1-15.

Thomasson, Amie L. “A Pragmatic Method for Normative Conceptual Work” in Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics, ed. by Alexis Burgess et al. Oxford: OUP, 2020.

English Translations of Source Texts:

Conze, Edward (trans.). The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary. Bolinas, CA: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973.

Felbur, Rafal (trans.). “Things Do Not Shift” in Three Short Treatises by Vasubandhu, Sengzhao, and Zongmi. BDK, 2018.

Having spent 15 years in various Asian countries, Shad is pioneering a pragmatist approach to premodern Asian literature as a doctoral researcher under pragmatist scholar Sami Pihlström at the University of Helsinki. Merging the conceptual pragmatism of C. I. Lewis with modern work in conceptual engineering, he argues for prescriptive projects in conceptual optimization, especially drawing upon Sanskrit and Chinese texts from the first few centuries of the first millennium.