School
Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka, the Middle Way school, is the Buddhist philosophy that all things are empty of intrinsic nature because they arise dependently.
It was founded by Nagarjuna in India around the second century CE, whose Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way argue that every attempt to give things a fixed essence leads to contradiction. It distinguishes conventional from ultimate truth. Later Indian commentators developed it, Jizang systematised it in China as the Three Treatises (Sanlun) school, and it became central to Tibetan Buddhism. On this site it answers questions on skepticism (2.4.1), causation, the structure of justification, parts and wholes, and meta-metaphysics.
Thinkers of this school
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Reading group: Nagarjuna, Mulamadhyamakakarika chapter 1 (on conditions)
The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā opens with an examination of causal conditions (pratyaya). The first verse says that nothing arises from itself, from something else, from both, or without a cause. The chapter then examines the four types of condition recognised by the Abhidharma schools:…
Started by Meera Kulkarni4 replies -
Reading group: Nāgārjuna on causes and conditions, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 1, 20 and 24
The Nyāya–Madhyamaka debates all lead back to the opening of Nāgārjuna's Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, so I'd like to read three chapters of it together. Translation. Jay Garfield, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (1995), which has the verses…
Started by Meera Kulkarni5 replies -
Reading group: Nāgārjuna’s Middle Verses, chapter 24, where emptiness is accused of nihilism
If you want to know what Nāgārjuna means by emptiness, the best place to look is the chapter where he is accused of destroying everything. Chapter 24 of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā opens with an opponent's objection: if all things are empty, nothing arises…
Started by Kenneth Lam Chi-ho5 replies