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The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle

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Madhyamaka, the "philosophy of the middle," systematized the Buddha's fundamental teaching on no-self with its profound non-essentialist reading of reality. Founded in India by Nāgārjuna in about the second century C.E., Madhyamaka philosophy went on to become the dominant strain of Buddhist thought in Tibet and exerted a profound influence on all the cultures of East Asia. Within the extensive Western scholarship inspired by this school of thought, David Seyfort Ruegg's work is unparalleled in its incisiveness, diligence, and scope. The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle brings together Ruegg’s greatest essays on Madhyamaka, expert writings which have and will continue to contribute to our progressing understanding of this rich tradition. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Citation	Ruegg, David Seyfort. The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle: Essays on Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2010.

Table of Contents About the Book Texts Translated Quotes

• Foreword by Tom Tillemans ix
• Preface xiii
• Abbreviations xix
  • 1. Mathematical and Linguistic Models in Indian Thought: The Case of Zero
        and Śūnyatā (1978) 1
  • 2. Towards a Chronology of the Madhyamaka School (1982) 13
  • 3. The Uses of the Four Positions of the Catuṣkoṭi and the Problem of the
        Description of Reality in Mahāyāna Buddhism (1977) 37
    • I. The Four Positions in Early Buddhist Thought37
    • II. The Uses of the Catuṣkoṭi in the Madhyamaka40
    • III. Conjunction and Negation of Opposed Terms in Vijñānavāda
          Definitions of Reality 67
    • IV. Negation of Opposed Terms in the Description of the Absolute in the
          Ratnagotravibhāga 81
    • V. The Vātsīputrīya Conception of the Indeterminate 84
    • Appendix I. Commentarial Interpretations of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
         xviii.8 86
    • Appendix II. Some Modern Interpretations of the Catuṣkoṭi 89
    • Appendix III. The Logical Error of Negation of the Antecedent and the
         Mūlamadhyamakakārikās 109
    • Bibliography 111
  • 4. Le Dharmadhātustava de Nāgārjuna (1971) 113
  • 5. On the Authorship of Some Works Ascribed to Bhā(va)viveka/Bhavya
        (1990) 145
  • 6. The Svātantrika-Prāsaṅgika Distinction in the History of Madhyamaka
        Though (2006) 159
  • 7. Purport, Implicature, and Presupposition: Sanskrit abhiprāya and Tibetan
        dgongs pa / dgongs gzhi as Hermeneutical Concepts (1985) 195
  • 8. An Indian Source for the Tibetan Hermeneutical Term dgongs gzhi,
        "Intentional Ground" (1998) 213
  • 9. Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism
        (1995) 217
  • 10. On the Tibetan Historiography and Doxography of the "Great Debate
         of Bsam yas" (1992) 253
  • 11. Autour du Lta ba'i khyad par de Ye shes sde (1979) 267
  • 12. The Jo nang pas; A School of Buddhist Ontologists According to the
         Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Doctrines (Grub mtha' shel gyi me long) (1963) 289
  • 13. A Karma Bka' brgyud Work on the Lineages and Traditions of the Indo-Tibetan dbu ma (Madhyamaka) (1988) 323
  • 14. La Pensée Tibétaine (accompagné d'une traduction du Rten 'brel bstod pa legs bshad snying po de Tsong kha pa) (1989) 357
  • 15. The Indian and the Indic in Tibetan Cultural History, and Tsong kha pa's Achievement as a Scholar and Thinker: An Essay on the Concepts of "Buddhism in Tibet" and "Tibetan Buddhism" (2004) 375
• English Glossary of Selected Terms 399
• Publications by David Seyfort Ruegg 407
• Indexes 419

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見