Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakarana)
Jan Westerhoff
(Translator)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
A rare glimpse of the sophisticated philosophical exchange between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools at an early stage.
The Vaidalyaprakarana provides a rare glimpse of the sophisticated philosophical exchange between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools at an early stage and will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist thought, classical Indian Philosophy, and the history of Asian thought.
Belonging to a set of Nagarjuna’s philosophical works known as the yukti-corpus, the Vaidalyaprakarana is noteworthy for its close engagement with the Hindu philosophers. It refutes the sixteen categories of the Nyaya school, which formed the logical and epistemological framework for many of the debates between Buddhist and Hindu philosophers.
The Sanskrit original of the Vaidalyaprakarana long lost, the author translates the text from Tibetan, giving it an extensive analytical commentary. The aim is twofold: to investigate the interaction of the founder of the Madhyamika school with this influential school of Hindu thought; and to make sense of how Nagarjuna’s arguments that refute the Naiyayika categories are essential to the Madhyamika path in general.
The Vaidalyaprakarana provides a rare glimpse of the sophisticated philosophical exchange between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools at an early stage and will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist thought, classical Indian Philosophy, and the history of Asian thought.
Belonging to a set of Nagarjuna’s philosophical works known as the yukti-corpus, the Vaidalyaprakarana is noteworthy for its close engagement with the Hindu philosophers. It refutes the sixteen categories of the Nyaya school, which formed the logical and epistemological framework for many of the debates between Buddhist and Hindu philosophers.
The Sanskrit original of the Vaidalyaprakarana long lost, the author translates the text from Tibetan, giving it an extensive analytical commentary. The aim is twofold: to investigate the interaction of the founder of the Madhyamika school with this influential school of Hindu thought; and to make sense of how Nagarjuna’s arguments that refute the Naiyayika categories are essential to the Madhyamika path in general.
Product Details
| Publisher | Wisdom Publications |
| Publish Date | September 04, 2018 |
| Pages | 346 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781949163001 |
| Dimensions | 228.6 X 152.4 X 25.4 mm | 605.5 g |
About the Author
Considered the preeminent scholar-practitioner of Mahayana Buddhism, the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna was renowned for his texts explaining the doctrine of emptienss, or shunyata. He is usually considered a Buddhist monk and scholar who lived in southern India sometime between 100 and 300 CE. He is revered as the founder of the Madhyamaka, or Middle Way school of Buddhist philosophy, which had a deep influence on all Mahayana traditions, and especially on Tibetan Buddhism.
Reviews
"Jan Westerhoff is a masterful translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan, an erudite historian of Indian Buddhist philosophy and an acute philosopher. All of these qualities are in evidence in this masterpiece of philosophical translation and commentary. This translation of Nagarjuna’s Vaidalyaprakarana is an important contribution to Madhyamaka studies, to our understanding of the history of debates between early Indian Mahayana philosophers and their orthodox interlocutors and to the history of world philosophy generally. The translation is highly readable and philologically meticulous, and the commentary lucid and sophisticated. Rarely is such a difficult text presented with such marvellous clarity."
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