Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy

by Burton,David F.

• ISBN13: 9780700710669
• ISBN10: 0700710663
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-22
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

Emptiness means that all entities are empty of, or lack, inherent existence - entities have a merely conceptual, constructed existence. Though Nagarjuna advocates the Middle Way, his philosophy of emptiness nevertheless entails nihilism, and his critiques of the Nyaya theory of knowledge are shown to be unconvincing.

Author Biography

David F. Burton is a Junior Research Fellow at Keble College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction	p. 1
Nagarjuna and Scepticism	p. 19
Non-Conceptuality and Knowledge of Reality	p. 45
The Problem of Nihilism	p. 87
The Purpose of Part II	p. 125
The Nyaya Pramana Theory	p. 127
Nagarjuna's Non-Apprehension of Entities	p. 141
Mutually Dependent Existence	p. 145
The Attack on Validation: Introduction	p. 151
The Attack on Intrinsic Validation	p. 157
The Attack on Extrinsic Validation	p. 181
The Attack on Validation: Conclusion	p. 189
The Argument from the Three Times	p. 191
Further Arguments in the Vaidalyaprakarana	p. 201
Conclusion	p. 209
Some Further Reflections on Svabhava in Indian Madhyamaka	p. 213
Bibliography	p. 221
Index	p. 228
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