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When considered as a list of doctrines, Buddhism and Platonism seem unlikely interlocutors, with diametrically opposed views on reality, knowledge, intelligibility, soul, and ethics. But taking individual philosophers as the systematic, critical inquirers they took themselves to be opens up rich possibilities for constructive philosophical dialogue—particularly given a shared suspicion of the value of ordinary conceptions running through the internal diversity of both traditions, and a shared aspiration to radically transform ourselves for the better. By bringing a team of specialists in each tradition into a multi-year process of collaborative study, we have been able to put the tools of the history of philosophy to work philosophically, creating searching conversations between Buddhist and Platonist that are at once textually grounded and philosophically oriented, and do equal justice to the acuity of each tradition. These curated joint inquiries addressing specific shared concerns take many different forms—collaborative, critical, constructive extensions, the exposure of deep conceptual connections and conflicts. But all forms of this cosmopolitan ancient philosophy work from the fine-grained particulars in classic philosophical texts of distinct philosophical traditions towards creating a more inclusive philosophical community, opening new perspectives on our own philosophical preoccupations, and enriching our understanding of what questions there are to ask and what possibilities there may be for addressing them.
When considered as a list of doctrines, Buddhism and Platonism seem unlikely interlocutors, with diametrically opposed views on reality, knowledge, intelligibility, soul, and ethics. But taking individual philosophers as the systematic, critical inquirers they took themselves to be opens up rich possibilities for constructive philosophical dialogue—particularly given a shared suspicion of the value of ordinary conceptions running through the internal diversity of both traditions, and a shared aspiration to radically transform ourselves for the better. By bringing a team of specialists in each tradition into a multi-year process of collaborative study, we have been able to put the tools of the history of philosophy to work philosophically, creating searching conversations between Buddhist and Platonist that are at once textually grounded and philosophically oriented, and do equal justice to the acuity of each tradition. These curated joint inquiries addressing specific shared concerns take many different forms—collaborative, critical, constructive extensions, the exposure of deep conceptual connections and conflicts. But all forms of this cosmopolitan ancient philosophy work from the fine-grained particulars in classic philosophical texts of distinct philosophical traditions towards creating a more inclusive philosophical community, opening new perspectives on our own philosophical preoccupations, and enriching our understanding of what questions there are to ask and what possibilities there may be for addressing them.
Nāgārjuna (c. 150–250 ce) is the founder of the Madhyamaka or Middle Way school of Buddhist philosophy and the most influential of all Buddhist thinkers following the Buddha himself. Throughout his works, Nāgārjuna repeatedly calls for the complete abandonment of all views. But how could anyone possibly abandon all views? And how could a philosopher of Nāgārjuna’s stature resort to using so self-contradictory a form of argumentation as the tetralemma, which openly negates a position, its contrary, both, and neither? Many scholars have attempted to parameterize Nāgārjuna’s paradoxes in an apologetic effort to justify him to mainstream Western philosophers as being irreproachably logical. This book, however, shows not only how Nāgārjuna’s truly radical teaching of no-view or “abelief” makes perfect sense within his Buddhist philosophy but also how it stands at the summit of his religious mission to care for all living beings. Rather than treating any one aspect of Nāgārjuna’s ideas in isolation, here his metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics emerge as forging a single coherent and convincing philosophical-religious system of thought and practice. Overall, this book takes a comprehensive approach to Nāgārjuna’s thought in its Buddhist context, integrating his views on views, belief, and conceptualization; language, mind, and intention; action, attachment, and selfhood; suffering, violence, and peace; and emptiness, nirvāṇa, and Buddhahood. By drawing on Buddhist sources in a way that resolutely strives to move beyond the Christianocentrism and Occidentocentrism still so dominant in scholarship today, this work challenges the very ways in which we think about religion and philosophy.
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