Kassandra Dugi

Summary of doctoral thesis: For my doctoral thesis I am working on both Graeco-Roman Stoicism and Mādhyamaka Buddhism; specifically, my focus is on the idea of ethical behaviour being grounded in altering one’s conception of the self by incorporating others into one’s sense of self and sphere of concern. Within Stoicism I am looking at the notion of oikeiōsis and, within Buddhism, at the exchange of self and others as found in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra and Śikṣa Samuccaya. In addition, my thesis explores the way both traditions use the relationship to one’s own body and one’s children as a paradigm for kinship with all of humanity, as well as the role that philosophical practice plays. My aim in comparing these two schools of philosophy is not merely to highlight similarities and differences between them, but rather to demonstrate how these can aid and resolve difficulties in the interpretation of both traditions. Furthermore, I want to provide a view of ethics that goes beyond the cultivation of altruism or compassion per se, but one that, by eliminating the distinction between self and other altogether, removes the need for these entirely.