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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 15, 2008
Review of Moral Theory in Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the fruits of virtue
Moral Theory in Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the fruits of virtue. By Barbra R. Clayton. London: Routledge, 2006, xv + 165 pages, ISBN 10041534697 (cloth).
Reviewed by Douglas Osto
School of History, Philosophy & Classics
Massey University d.osto@massey.ac.nz
Barbra Clayton’s Moral Theory in Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the fruits of virtue is one of two recently published monographs exclusively devoted to ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya (for the other, see Susanne Mrozik, Virtuous Bodies: The Physical Dimensions of Morality in Buddhist Ethics, New York: Oxford, 2007). Clayton’s investigation of the moral thought of an important medieval Indian Mahāyāna monk expands the discussion of Buddhist ethics beyond the confines of an earlier stage of scholarship (cf. Tachibana 1926, Saddhatissa 1970, Keown 1992 and Harvey 2000) that to date has focused almost exclusively on Theravāda Buddhism. Although less theoretically ambitious than Mrozik’s study, Clayton’s monograph, by framing Śāntideva’s text within contemporary (Western) moral theory, will appeal to comparative ethicists (particularly those with an analytical orientation) and to students interested in the emerging field of comparative Buddhist ethics.
