Jan Westerhoff
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199732692
- eISBN:
- 9780199777365
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732692.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism, Philosophy of Religion
The Vigrahavyāvartanī is a short work by the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna. In this text, which is written in a lively question-and-answer style he addresses a ...
More
The Vigrahavyāvartanī is a short work by the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna. In this text, which is written in a lively question-and-answer style he addresses a number of objections (coming both from Buddhists and from non-Buddhists) which have been put forward against his theory of emptiness discussed in his main work, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The Vigrahavyāvartanī is especially noteworthy for its treatment of topics which Nāgārjuna does not much discuss elsewhere, in particular questions of epistemology and the philosophy of language. The purpose of this book is to unlock the philosophical contents of the texts by providing a comprehensive commentary on Nāgārjuna’s arguments as well as a somewhat more general discussion of the philosophical points these raise. It is divided into three sections: the introduction, the translation, and the commentary. The introduction discusses the history of the text and gives a survey of the presently available editions and translations. I then address the question of the authenticity of the Vigrahavyāvartanī, discussing in detail some of the arguments put forward in the secondary literature which attempt to show that the text was not composed by Nāgārjuna. This is followed by some notes on the peculiar structure of the Vigrahavyāvartanī. Here I also explain why I chose to arrange the text differently in the translation and in the commentary. The introduction is concluded by a synopsis which gives a brief survey of the contents of the ten sections into which I have divided the text. The translation is based on the most recent edition of the Sanskrit text (Yonezawa 2008). All explanatory notes, discussions of variant readings and so forth have been left to the commentary. The commentary contains the entire text of the Vigrahavyāvartanī, though in an arrangement which differs from the one followed in the translation. My remarks on a specific section of the text usually follow this section directly, distinguished by a different typeface. The commentary divides Nāgārjuna’s text into ten main thematic units: (1) The status of the theory of emptiness; (2) Epistemology; (3) Intrinsically good things; (4) Names without objects; (5) Extrinsic substances; (6) Negation and existence; (7) The mirage analogy; (8) Emptiness and reasons; (9) Negation and temporal relations; (10) Conclusion
Less
The Vigrahavyāvartanī is a short work by the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna. In this text, which is written in a lively question-and-answer style he addresses a number of objections (coming both from Buddhists and from non-Buddhists) which have been put forward against his theory of emptiness discussed in his main work, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The Vigrahavyāvartanī is especially noteworthy for its treatment of topics which Nāgārjuna does not much discuss elsewhere, in particular questions of epistemology and the philosophy of language. The purpose of this book is to unlock the philosophical contents of the texts by providing a comprehensive commentary on Nāgārjuna’s arguments as well as a somewhat more general discussion of the philosophical points these raise. It is divided into three sections: the introduction, the translation, and the commentary. The introduction discusses the history of the text and gives a survey of the presently available editions and translations. I then address the question of the authenticity of the Vigrahavyāvartanī, discussing in detail some of the arguments put forward in the secondary literature which attempt to show that the text was not composed by Nāgārjuna. This is followed by some notes on the peculiar structure of the Vigrahavyāvartanī. Here I also explain why I chose to arrange the text differently in the translation and in the commentary. The introduction is concluded by a synopsis which gives a brief survey of the contents of the ten sections into which I have divided the text. The translation is based on the most recent edition of the Sanskrit text (Yonezawa 2008). All explanatory notes, discussions of variant readings and so forth have been left to the commentary. The commentary contains the entire text of the Vigrahavyāvartanī, though in an arrangement which differs from the one followed in the translation. My remarks on a specific section of the text usually follow this section directly, distinguished by a different typeface. The commentary divides Nāgārjuna’s text into ten main thematic units: (1) The status of the theory of emptiness; (2) Epistemology; (3) Intrinsically good things; (4) Names without objects; (5) Extrinsic substances; (6) Negation and existence; (7) The mirage analogy; (8) Emptiness and reasons; (9) Negation and temporal relations; (10) Conclusion
