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<p>Compassion education is attracting growing attention across neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Many programs—especially in the United States—adopt brain-based models rooted in neuroplasticity and mindfulness. However, Western approaches are not monolithic; some frame compassion as a civic and moral virtue. A few programs also draw on Tibetan Buddhist traditions, though the dominant trend remains empirical and psychological. This paper argues that when treated as self-sufficient, science-based models risk narrowing compassion to what is measurable and rest on unexamined assumptions about human nature and education. Drawing on critiques of scientific naturalism, Mahayana Buddhist thought, and Ohashi Ryosuke’s phenomenology, this paper proposes an integrative framework that foregrounds relational accounts of flourishing and challenges mind/body and subject/object dualisms. Methodologically, the paper (1) outlines a Buddhist account of compassion as interdependence and situates it cross-culturally; (2) examines UNESCO MGIEP’s LIBRE programme as a case study; (3) interrogates the Western “brain = mind” assumption and its reductionist limitations; and (4) advances a complementary framework based on Ohashi and Mahayana Buddhism. Rather than positing an East–West dichotomy, the analysis invites sustained dialogue between neuroscience and philosophy to broaden the aims and practices of compassion education.</p>

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Integrative approaches to compassion education: bridging scientific and philosophical perspectives

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月11日

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  • Nanae Fukui

摘要

Compassion education is attracting growing attention across neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Many programs—especially in the United States—adopt brain-based models rooted in neuroplasticity and mindfulness. However, Western approaches are not monolithic; some frame compassion as a civic and moral virtue. A few programs also draw on Tibetan Buddhist traditions, though the dominant trend remains empirical and psychological. This paper argues that when treated as self-sufficient, science-based models risk narrowing compassion to what is measurable and rest on unexamined assumptions about human nature and education. Drawing on critiques of scientific naturalism, Mahayana Buddhist thought, and Ohashi Ryosuke’s phenomenology, this paper proposes an integrative framework that foregrounds relational accounts of flourishing and challenges mind/body and subject/object dualisms. Methodologically, the paper (1) outlines a Buddhist account of compassion as interdependence and situates it cross-culturally; (2) examines UNESCO MGIEP’s LIBRE programme as a case study; (3) interrogates the Western “brain = mind” assumption and its reductionist limitations; and (4) advances a complementary framework based on Ohashi and Mahayana Buddhism. Rather than positing an East–West dichotomy, the analysis invites sustained dialogue between neuroscience and philosophy to broaden the aims and practices of compassion education.