Mādhyamika realism
Colloquium
Speaker: Paul Livingston, University of New Mexico
When: Feb 07, 2020 - 03:30pm
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05:00pm
Where: Humanities 519, Department Library
Description:
In this paper, I will sketch and consider several possible applications of recent and contemporary ideas in the logic and semantics of truth to central claims of the Madhyamaka tradition of Buddhist thought, founded by Nagarjuna in the second or third century CE. I argue in particular that a particular kind of formally schematized realism with respect to the world and its objects is helpful in understanding the relationship that Madhyamaka philosophers discuss between "ordinary" and "ultimate" truth. This makes clearer, I suggest, the specific potential of logical or logical-linguistic analysis and reasoning of the kind these philosophers deploy to facilitate the aims of enlightenment and liberation.