c. 2nd–3rd century CE; the dates are uncertain
Nāgārjuna
Traditional biographies are late and legendary. The conventional scholarly range is roughly the second or third century CE.
Nāgārjuna is the central philosopher of Madhyamaka Buddhism. The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā argues that things lack inherent existence and that this emptiness is tied to dependent arising, not to the claim that nothing exists and not to the claim that mind is the only substance. The doctrine of two truths distinguishes conventional truth from ultimate truth without licensing a casual “everything is an illusion.” He is in this atlas as a correction to any story in which ontology is only a European choice between matter and mind.
Also in the atlas
- Emptiness
- The two truths
- Dependent arising
Reading, not a syllabus ranking
- Mūlamadhyamakakārikā — The fundamental verses on the middle way. Chapter attributions and commentaries are a large scholarly field of their own.
Questions for reflection
- If nothing has inherent existence, what is the difference between that claim and “only minds are real”?
Do not place Nāgārjuna on the idealism pole. The page exists so that the pole is not mistaken for the whole of non-physicalist thought.