Philosophy of the 20th-21st centuries and the understanding of existential emptiness in Buddhism

Abstract

Contemporary Western philosophy of the 20th-21st centuries often draws research parallels with Eastern philosophical traditions, especially with Buddhism. Despite the fact that historically Buddhism was formed in a different cultural environment than Western Europe and relied on other metaphysical premises, the key ideas of Buddhism about emptiness (shunyata), the illusory nature of the “Ego” and the impermanence of consciousness unexpectedly coincide with the thoughts of such Western philosophers as Emil Michel Cioran, Peter Wessel Zapffe, Thomas Metzinger, David Benatar and others. These thinkers, each in their own way, come to similar conclusions of Buddhism about the nature of reality, about suffering and about the possibility of going beyond the usual perception of the “Ego” and the world.