Coda

This brief concluding chapter argues that Buddhist ethics constitutes a distinctive voice in ethical theory. While Buddhist ethical thought is distinct in both form and content from any of the major Western metaethical systems, it is supplementary to, rather than inconsistent with them. Buddhist ethics encourages us to look at the subjective, phenomenological side of ethics, and to foreground ethical perception and experience in our account of moral cultivation, as opposed to actions, rules, and consequences. By examining Buddhist ethical theory in conjunction with Western ethical theory, we can discover new questions that make our ethical debate richer than before.