Papers by Richard H Wilson, Jr.
This is the title page and abstract from my doctoral dissertation for my PhD in Transformative St... more This is the title page and abstract from my doctoral dissertation for my PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, completed in 2020.
Dissertation title:
The Causality of Inner-Directed Personal Transformation: Perspectives from Nichiren SGI Buddhism, Archetypal Cosmology, and the Philosophy and Sciences of the Mind
The full dissertation is available at:
https://www.proquest.com/openview/124cf05ed3a27978547192b8092b2b78/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44156
Hartford Chorale Concert Program, 2023
This essay was written in support of the Hartford Chorale's (Hartford, CT) February 2023 concert ... more This essay was written in support of the Hartford Chorale's (Hartford, CT) February 2023 concert of works by Margaret Bonds and David Hurd.
World Futures: The Journal of Global Education, Volume 69, Issue 2, 2013, Mar 28, 2013
A review, with reflections, of Michael S. Gazzaniga's (2011) book, Who's in Charge? Free Will and... more A review, with reflections, of Michael S. Gazzaniga's (2011) book, Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain. Gazzaniga, a distinguished neuroscientist, wishes to connect contemporary understandings of the functioning of the human brain to the proper functioning of the American courtroom. What effect, if any, should these current understandings (and current technologies) have on legal conceptions of personal responsibility, guilt, and punishment? If, as many neuroscientists hold, the functioning of the brain wholly determines the functioning of the mind, can people rightly be held responsible for their actions? Gazzaniga argues that they can.
This paper begins with a summary of my dissertation topic as currently envisioned: a comparison o... more This paper begins with a summary of my dissertation topic as currently envisioned: a comparison of three theoretical frameworks (Nichiren Buddhism, neuroscience, and archetypal cosmology / depth psychology) from the standpoint of their efficacy in elucidating and supporting the possibility of inner-motivated, self-directed, personal transformation, understood as a creator of social change. Course readings (by Bateson, Bernstein, Gergen, Morin, Slater, Stewart and Bennett, and Sztompka) and a video (by Curtis) are discussed and compared, and their usefulness in helping me perceive and assess my own, socially-created approach to my dissertation, and to my life, is considered.
Keywords: Buddhism, social construction, pragmatism, pragmatic fallibilism, feminism, social transformation.
I start by taking a look at four dualities--the Ultimate / the mundane; good / evil; the physical... more I start by taking a look at four dualities--the Ultimate / the mundane; good / evil; the physical / the spiritual; and the individual self / everything else there is ("not self")--from both the Abrahamic and Buddhist perspectives: in particular, that of Nichiren / Lotus-Sutra Buddhism. I then take a look at problems that I believe derive, at their deepest level, from an ongoing failure to resolve those dualities. These problems are deeply serious, and underlie many of the crises that surround us today. Finally, I will consider how Buddhism might help lead the way out of this impasse. Its fundamental non-dualism, I claim, offers a powerful, alternative-to-the-Western-norm starting point for understanding and interacting with the world. It also supports Buddhism’s capacity to harmonize itself with Christianity and Islam—and Judaism, too—in ways that these Abrahamic traditions manifestly often have difficulty doing with each other, on their own.
A 2006 reply to a note posted on my college class's listserv, asking, “can you clarify why vengea... more A 2006 reply to a note posted on my college class's listserv, asking, “can you clarify why vengeance is a bad thing?”
Both Jungian psychology and the Nichiren Buddhism I have long practiced as a member of Soka Gakka... more Both Jungian psychology and the Nichiren Buddhism I have long practiced as a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offer a model for self-transformation, and through that, social transformation as well. I sketch out here some similarities and differences between these two approaches.
This is the final paper I wrote for a three-credit, independent study this past Spring, with Rich... more This is the final paper I wrote for a three-credit, independent study this past Spring, with Richard Tarnas. The course was centered on a number of readings and lectures on those readings.The lectures, 24 hours of them, were video-recorded (and are all available on YouTube, by the way.) The readings were Tarnas’s own, magisterial The Passion of the Western Mind, an extraordinary one-volume history of Western thought; three works by James Hillman: his seminal book, Revisioning Psychology, and two essays, “On Senex Consciousness” and “Anima Mundi: The Return of the Soul to the World”; and a number of source readings from the Western tradition: Plato’s Symposium, portions of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Descartes’s Discourse on Method, and Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The paper attempts to weave all of these into a coherent whole as well as one might in 15 pages or so, and adds a couple of dollops of Buddhist thought to the mix as well, in an autobiographical context of sorts. Not surprisingly, with Tarnas, Plato, Aristotle, and Hillman all part of the mix, there's an archetypal slant to the discussion. The paper is more informal than most academic writing, addressing Tarnas (as “Rick” and "you") as though we were engaged in dialogue, which, in very real sense, we were.
Books by Richard H Wilson, Jr.
For the Sake of the Future, for the Sake of Peace.
Despite what academia.edu claims, I am NOT... more For the Sake of the Future, for the Sake of Peace.
Despite what academia.edu claims, I am NOT a co-author on this paper. It is entirely the work of Richard Wilson, Ph.D.; I have found it to be very inspiring and asked his permission to post it here, which he kindly granted. If you cite this paper, please give him full credit. More of Dr. Wilson's work can be found at: https://ciis.academia.edu/RichardWilson
Dr. Wilson writes: "Both Jungian psychology and the Nichiren Buddhism I have long practiced as a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offer a model for self-transformation, and through that, social transformation as well. I sketch out here some similarities and differences between these two approaches.
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Papers by Richard H Wilson, Jr.
Dissertation title:
The Causality of Inner-Directed Personal Transformation: Perspectives from Nichiren SGI Buddhism, Archetypal Cosmology, and the Philosophy and Sciences of the Mind
The full dissertation is available at:
https://www.proquest.com/openview/124cf05ed3a27978547192b8092b2b78/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44156
Keywords: Buddhism, social construction, pragmatism, pragmatic fallibilism, feminism, social transformation.
Books by Richard H Wilson, Jr.
Despite what academia.edu claims, I am NOT a co-author on this paper. It is entirely the work of Richard Wilson, Ph.D.; I have found it to be very inspiring and asked his permission to post it here, which he kindly granted. If you cite this paper, please give him full credit. More of Dr. Wilson's work can be found at: https://ciis.academia.edu/RichardWilson
Dr. Wilson writes: "Both Jungian psychology and the Nichiren Buddhism I have long practiced as a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offer a model for self-transformation, and through that, social transformation as well. I sketch out here some similarities and differences between these two approaches.
Dissertation title:
The Causality of Inner-Directed Personal Transformation: Perspectives from Nichiren SGI Buddhism, Archetypal Cosmology, and the Philosophy and Sciences of the Mind
The full dissertation is available at:
https://www.proquest.com/openview/124cf05ed3a27978547192b8092b2b78/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44156
Keywords: Buddhism, social construction, pragmatism, pragmatic fallibilism, feminism, social transformation.
Despite what academia.edu claims, I am NOT a co-author on this paper. It is entirely the work of Richard Wilson, Ph.D.; I have found it to be very inspiring and asked his permission to post it here, which he kindly granted. If you cite this paper, please give him full credit. More of Dr. Wilson's work can be found at: https://ciis.academia.edu/RichardWilson
Dr. Wilson writes: "Both Jungian psychology and the Nichiren Buddhism I have long practiced as a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offer a model for self-transformation, and through that, social transformation as well. I sketch out here some similarities and differences between these two approaches.