- Hardcover: 233 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (Jun 22 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0700710663
- ISBN-13: 978-0700710669
- Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 15.4 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 426 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Description
Product Description
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.
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First Sentence
It is my intention to ascertain the nature of knowledge-claims about reality (tattva, dharmata) or the ultimate truth (paramarthasatya), according to Nagarjuna. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It is my intention to ascertain the nature of knowledge-claims about reality (tattva, dharmata) or the ultimate truth (paramarthasatya), according to Nagarjuna. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly but with some misunderstanding,
By "dougyt" (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy (Hardcover)
I found this a rather disappointing read as, although the author has a wealth of scholarship, he seems to misconstrue Nagarjuna's basic position. In particular, he equates the conventional (i.e. empirically real) with the absolute (i.e.necessary but not apprehensible) levels of reality, possibly due to the potential linguistic ambiguity in having at least two very distinct senses in which the word "real" is being used.To do this, though, is to discard one of the fundamental aspects of Nagarjuna's system, namely that there are 2 forms of reality - phenomenal reality against noumenal reality, and that they are not equivalent, but that both are void of self-nature. By equating them and then taking Nagarjuna's view of the lack of self-nature of the empirically real, the author reaches the conclusion that Nagarjuna's philosophy entails absolute nihilism. Nagarjuna's philosophy does entail a certain amount of idealism in the Kantian sense, in that we can never know the world as it is in itself, but only know it (as an apprehensible object) as it appears to us. The philosophical standpoint of the author appears to be one of philosophical realism based on the Nyaya worldview. The Nyaya system of debating entails advancing a thesis against an opponent's thesis, and so Nagarjuna's approach doesn't fit in with the Nyaya mode of argumentation, as Nagarjuna is quite at pains to avoid presenting ANY metaphysical thesis. I think that the author of this book has misunderstood sunyavada on account of his realist tendencies.
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2.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly but with some misunderstanding,
By "dougyt" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy (Hardcover)
I found this a rather disappointing read as, although the author has a wealth of scholarship, he seems to misconstrue Nagarjuna's basic position. In particular, he equates the conventional (i.e. empirically real) with the absolute (i.e.necessary but not apprehensible) levels of reality, possibly due to the potential linguistic ambiguity in having at least two very distinct senses in which the word "real" is being used.To do this, though, is to discard one of the fundamental aspects of Nagarjuna's system, namely that there are 2 forms of reality - phenomenal reality against noumenal reality, and that they are not equivalent, but that both are void of self-nature. By equating them and then taking Nagarjuna's view of the lack of self-nature of the empirically real, the author reaches the conclusion that Nagarjuna's philosophy entails absolute nihilism. Nagarjuna's philosophy does entail a certain amount of idealism in the Kantian sense, in that we can never know the world as it is in itself, but only know it (as an apprehensible object) as it appears to us. The philosophical standpoint of the author appears to be one of philosophical realism based on the Nyaya worldview. The Nyaya system of debating entails advancing a thesis against an opponent's thesis, and so Nagarjuna's approach doesn't fit in with the Nyaya mode of argumentation, as Nagarjuna is quite at pains to avoid presenting ANY metaphysical thesis. I think that the author of this book has misunderstood sunyavada on account of his realist tendencies. |
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