Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction

257 Pages·2009·0.75 MB·English

by  Jan Westerhoff

Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka
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Nāgārjuna’s
Madhyamaka
A Philosophical Introduction
jan westerhoff
1
2009
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Westerhoff, Jan.
Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka: a philosophical introduction / Jan Westerhoff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-537521-3; 978-0-19-538496-3 (pbk.)
1. Nagarjuna, 2nd cent. 2. Madhyamika (Buddhism) I. Title.
BQ7479.8.N347W48 2008
294.3'92092—dc22 2008024577
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
to
DSR
“Don’t you mind dying, sir?” the consul asked. “Forgive me a little
lofty talk,” van Gulik said, “but all movement is illusory. From Seoul to
Kobe. From life to death.”
Janwillem van de Wetering, Robert van Gulik: His Life, His Work
Acknowledgments
This book owes many different things to many different people. My
greatest debt of gratitude is to David Seyfort Ruegg, who spent many
hours with me talking through various incarnations of these pages
and generously shared his encyclopedic knowledge of the Indian and
Tibetan philosophical traditions. Ulrich Pagel provided invaluable
support in academic as well as in administrative matters.
On the linguistic side I have to thank Alexandra Leduc for organ-
izing a splendid Sanskrit-Tibetan translation seminar in London
(despite only narrowly avoiding appeal to the rule tres faciunt colle-
gium), as well as Ulrike Roesler for attempting to arrange something
similar at Oxford. Mattia Salvini acted as a guide to the perplexed
concerning various points of Sanskrit grammar and, apart from
being an excellent Sanskritist, showed himself to be a similarly excel-
lent thinker and provided me with many very useful suggestions for
understanding Nāgārjuna’s arguments. Geshe Sherab Gyatso kindly
offered his help in trying to make sense of a rather terse passage in a
Tibetan commentary on Nāgārjuna.
Jay Garfield and Tom Tillemans read through previous versions
of this material and made many useful suggestions which helped me
to improve the discussion considerably. Ralf Kramer, former Tibetan
librarian at the Indian Institute in Oxford, tracked down the most
obscure texts in the shortest possible time and gave me countless
fascinating Tibetological references. Support in various forms was
viii acknowledgments
provided by the Spalding Trust, the Society for South Asian Studies, and the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is gratefully acknowledged.
Finally, thanks are due to Yuka Kobayashi for keeping the sun shining.
J.C.W.
New York City
First day of the Male Earth
Rat Year of the 17th Cycle
Contents
Abbreviations, xi
1. Introduction, 3
1.1 Nāgārjuna the Philosopher, 4
1.2 Nāgārjuna‘s Works, 5
1.3 Methodological Considerations, 6
1.4 The Philosophical Study of Nāgārjuna in the West, 9
1.5 Overview, 12
2. Interpretations of Svabhāva, 19
2.1 The Ontological Dimension, 20
2.2 The Cognitive Dimension, 46
3. The Role of Negation in Nāgārjuna’s Arguments, 53
3.1 Nyāya Theory of Negation, 54
3.2 Negation and Nondenoting Terms, 56
3.3 Negation and Temporal Relations, 64
4. The Catu.sko.ti or Tetralemma, 67
4.1 Two Kinds of Negation, 68
4.2 Rejection of Two Alternatives, 70
4.3 Rejection of Four Alternatives, 73
4.4 Affirming Four Alternatives: The Positive Tetralemma, 89