Spring 2027

Buddhist Thought

A survey of fundamental trends in Buddhist thought through major philosophers, focusing on selflessness, essencelessness, perception, language, and rationality.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2016: 3.52 GPA, 69.2% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Spring 2017: 3.28 GPA, 56.2% A/AB (n=16 letter grades); Spring 2020: 3.66 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the historical arc of Buddhist philosophical schools in South Asia.

  • Argue for or against the theory that ignorance underlies all suffering.

  • Identify the main strands of contemporary scholarship on Buddhist thought.

  • Phenomenologically experiment with the relationship between theory and experience.

  • Replicate and critique arguments in favor of emptiness in its various interpretations.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ASIAN/RELIGST 466

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2016: 3.52 GPA, 69.2% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Spring 2017: 3.28 GPA, 56.2% A/AB (n=16 letter grades); Spring 2020: 3.66 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • The concept of selflessness and related theories of essencelessness
  • Perception, language, and rationality in Buddhist philosophy
  • Historical development of Buddhist philosophical schools in South Asia
  • Philosophical arguments concerning emptiness and its interpretations

Skills

  • Describing the historical development of Buddhist philosophical schools in South Asia
  • Constructing arguments for or against theories connecting ignorance to suffering
  • Identifying major approaches in contemporary Buddhist scholarship
  • Engaging in phenomenological exploration of the link between theory and lived experience
  • Reconstructing and evaluating philosophical arguments supporting different conceptions of emptiness

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2020— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2020

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "36e0cccf96c1d5992701d24e3dcaffc2060380795ab5beabf6a10825faa138f3",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}