Buddhism and Western philosophy

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Buddhist thought and Western philosophy include several parallels.

In antiquity, the Greek philosopher Pyrrho traveled with Alexander the Great's army on its conquest of India (327 to 325 BCE) and based his philosophy of Pyrrhonism on what he learned there.^[1] Christopher I. Beckwith has identified a translation of the Buddhist three marks of existence^[2] in Pyrrho's teachings.

In the modern era, a few European thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche engaged with Buddhist thought. Likewise, in Asian nations with Buddhist populations, there were also attempts to bring the insights of Western thought to Buddhist philosophy, as can be seen in the rise of Buddhist modernism.

After WWII spread of Buddhism to the West scholarly interest arose in a comparative, cross-cultural approach between Eastern and Western philosophy. Much of this work is now published in academic journals such as Philosophy East and West.