Un-asking the question: Introducing a Critical Buddhist Analytic

Abstract

In response to a call for a social work that reimagines the contours and content of the"social" (Wilson & Lynch, 2021, p. 1), we present two concepts central to Buddhism: śūnyatā (translated as"emptiness") and anātman ("no-self"), the anti-essentialist concept of śūnyatā as applied to the subject. The negation of all dualisms - the refutation of the anthropocentric, humanist world view, central concerns of the"new" posthumanisms - are basic premises of Buddhism. Our intent is to point to: 1) the untapped conceptual/theoretical riches of Buddhism, and; 2) the example of the Mindfulness industry, which cautions us that while social work is willing to extract elements of historically marginalized onto-epistemologies to be incorporated into the existing knowledge base, that base is not intended to be decentered. We introduce Buddhism, not as a truer alternative, but as a radical heuristic for un-settling the onto-epistemologies of rationality, the human subject, and social work futurities.