The ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna maintained that everything is empty of substance, that emptiness is itself empty, and that the very assertion of "emptiness" is empty too. According to the philosopher Jan Westerhoff, this position has certain philosophical problems.
In his lecture to the Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy ("Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka: Some Philosophical Problems"), Westerhoff argues for an interesting parallel between Madhyamaka and contemporary discussions of antirealism. It is his thesis that both schools of thought share a way of resolving their potential problems, if they adopt a radical view of language.
Jan Westerhoff is currently a research fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center here in New York City. He's also a lecturer in the philosophy department at the University of Durham (UK). He completed both his undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at Cambridge University
Dear Jan,
Please see my paper about Nagarjuna's philosophy: http://christianthomaskohl.googlepages.com
In this paper I try to give an answer about some problems about Nagarjuna.
Best wishes
Thomas
Christian Thomas Kohl
http://christianthomaskohl.googlepages.com
Posted by: Christian Thomas Kohl | Friday, November 23, 2007 at 06:22 AM