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26Reasons and lives in Buddhist traditions: studies in honor of Matthew Kapstein (edited book)Wisdom Publications. 2019.The celebrated career of a venerated scholar inspires incisive new contributions to the field of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Particularly known for his groundbreaking and influential work in Tibetan studies, Matthew Kapstein is a true polymath in Buddhist and Asian studies more generally; possessing unsurpassed knowledge of Tibetan culture and civilization, he is also deeply grounded in Sanskrit and Indology, and his highly accomplished work in these cultural and civilizational areas has exempl…Read more
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9The Real According to Madhyamaka, Or: Thoughts on Whether Mark Siderits and I Really DisagreeIn Christian Coseru (ed.), Reasons and Empty Persons: Mind, Metaphysics, and Morality: Essays in Honor of Mark Siderits, Springer. pp. 259-282. 2023.Mark Siderits’s contributions to the study of Indian philosophy have long included rational reconstruction of arguments and positions typical of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist thought. A widely-known expression of this tradition’s core contention – “the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth” – is widely attributed to Siderits, and my own studies of Madhyamaka have from the outset been influenced by his philosophically sophisticated work. Nonetheless, I have always resisted Siderit…Read more
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22Can Consciousness Be Explained? Buddhist Idealism and the "Hard Problem" in Philosophy of MindIn Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.), Philosophy's big questions: comparing Buddhist and Western approaches, Columbia University Press. pp. 97-128. 2021.
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16Pragmatism as Transcendental Philosophy, Part 2: Peirce on God and PersonalityAmerican Journal of Theology and Philosophy 42 (2): 3-71. 2021.This article is the second part of a two-part essay generally contending that pragmatism, as epitomized by Charles Peirce's 1905 essay "What Pragmatism Is", is aptly characterized as transcendental philosophy, and that this reading is particularly illuminating with regard to Peirce's much-vexed 1908 essay "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God".1 Part 1 introduced Peirce's metaphysical categories, characterizing them as capturing, among other things, phenomenological considerations also ce…Read more
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41Pragmatism as Transcendental Philosophy, Part 1: Peirce in Light of James’s Radical EmpiricismAmerican Journal of Theology and Philosophy 42 (1): 50-103. 2021.I’m grateful for the opportunity to give the 2019 AJTP Lecture and for the leeway since then allowed me in developing ideas first presented there; it is indulgent of this journal to publish the overlong result in two parts, of which this is the first.1 The philosophical tradition epitomized by William James and Charles S. Peirce figured importantly in my early philosophical formation, but I am not a scholar of their work; nevertheless, Mike Hogue—at the time the editor of AJTP and once a doctora…Read more
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1Givenness as a Corollary to Non-Conceptual Awareness: Thinking about Thought in Buddhist PhilosophyIn Jay L. Garfield (ed.), Wilfrid Sellars and Buddhist Philosophy: Freedom From Foundations, Routledge. pp. 130-156. 2018.This article aims to show why Sellars' critique of epistemic givenness has proven so apt in characterizing the philosophical problems that confront the project of Dignaga and Dharmakirti -- problem that result from the etent to whih these buddhists valorized "non-conceptual awareness.
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64The Sense Madhyamaka Makes as a Buddhist Position: Or, How a ‘Performativist Account of the Language of Self’ Makes Sense of ‘No-Self’Journal of Indian Philosophy 47 (4): 697-726. 2019.Revisiting the author’s characteristic line of interpretation of the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti, this essay responds to critiques thereof by arguing for the sense Madhyamaka makes, on the author’s interpretation, as a Buddhist position. For purposes of the argument, it is allowed that especially on the author’s characteristic interpretation, Madhyamaka appears to have affinities with the “personalist” doctrine long regarded by Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions as uno…Read more
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3The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika, translation and commentaryPhilosophy East and West 49 88-91. 1999.
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Mimam&Dotbelow;Sakas and Madhyamikas Against the Buddhist Epistemologists: A Comparative Study of Two Indian Answers to the Question of JustificationDissertation, The University of Chicago. 2002.This dissertation consists in a philosophically constructive engagement with two different critiques of the Buddhist epistemological tradition stemming from Dignaga and Dharmakirti . The tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti, which was particularly important to the development of pan-Indian canons of reasoned argumentation, may plausibly be characterized as foundationalist. The traditions that follow the epistemologists in deploying these canons of reasoning are often taken as coextensive with or…Read more
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129Of intrinsic validity: A study on the relevance of purva mimamsaPhilosophy East and West 51 (1): 26-53. 2001.The Mīmāṃsāka doctrine of "svatah prāmānya" has seldom been given the serious philosophical attention it deserves. This doctrine in fact grows out of a sophisticated critique of epistemological foundationalism. This critique, as well as the larger project that it serves, has striking similarities with the philosophical project advanced in William Alston's "Perceiving God". A comparison of the two helps to highlight the strengths and the problems of both projects, and shows, perhaps more importan…Read more
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6The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Naagaarjuna's Muulamadhyamakakaarikaa. Translation and commentary by Jay L. Garfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. xix+ 372 (review)Philosophy East and West 49 (1): 88-92. 1999.
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27Review of Jonardon Ganeri, The Concealed Art of the Soul: Theories of Self and Practices of Truth in Indian Ethics and Epistemology (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (4). 2008.
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101How to do things with candrakirti: A comparative study in anti-skepticismPhilosophy East and West 51 (2): 247-279. 2001.Two strikingly similar critiques of epistemological foundationalism are examined: J. L. Austin's critique of A. J. Ayer in the former's "Sense and Sensibilia," and part of Candrakīrti's critique of Dignāga in the first chapter of the "Prasannapadā." With respect to Austin, it is argued that his writings on epistemology in fact relate quite closely to his better-known philosophy of speech acts, and that the appeal to ordinary language is part of a transcendental argument against the possibility o…Read more
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47Self-Awareness (svasaṃvitti) and Related Doctrines of Buddhists Following Dignāga: Philosophical Characterizations of Some of the Main IssuesJournal of Indian Philosophy 38 (3): 323-378. 2010.Framed as a consideration of the other contributions to the present volume of the Journal of Indian Philosophy, this essay attempts to scout and characterize several of the interrelated doctrines and issues that come into play in thinking philosophically about the doctrine of svasaṃvitti, particularly as that was elaborated by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. Among the issues thus considered are the question of how mānasapratyakṣa (which is akin to manovijñāna) might relate to svasaṃvitti; how those rel…Read more
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60Nāgārjuna's “Middle Way”: A non-eliminative understanding of selflessnessRevue Internationale de Philosophie 253 (3): 367-395. 2010.
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126Buddhist idealism, epistemic and otherwise: Thoughts on the alternating perspectives of dharmakīrtiSophia 47 (1): 3-28. 2008.Some influential interpreters of Dharmakīrti have suggested understanding his thought in terms of a ‘sliding scale of analysis.’ Here it is argued that this emphasis on Dharmakīrti's alternating philosophical perspectives, though helpful in important respects, obscures the close connection between the two views in play. Indeed, with respect to these perspectives as Dharmakīrti develops them, the epistemology is the same either way. Insofar as that is right, John Dunne's characterization of Dharm…Read more
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21Review of The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā by Jay L. Garfield (review)Philosophy East and West 49 (1): 88-92. 1999.
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77Is svasaṃvitti transcendental? A tentative reconstruction following ŚāntarakṣitaAsian Philosophy 15 (1). 2005.There has emerged in recent years the recognition that the characteristically Buddhist doctrine of svasa vitti 2 (‘apperception’, as I will render it for reasons to become clear presently) was vari...
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183Personal identity and Buddhist philosophy: empty personsAshgate. 2003.This book initiates a conversation between the two traditions showing how concepts and tools drawn from one philosophical tradition can help solve problems ...
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47Transcendental Arguments and Practical Reason in Indian PhilosophyArgumentation 22 (1): 135-147. 2008.This paper examines some Indian philosophical arguments that are understandable as transcendental arguments—i.e., arguments whose conclusions cannot be denied without self-contradiction, insofar as the truth of the claim in question is a condition of the possibility even of any such denial. This raises the question of what kind of self-contradiction is involved—e.g., pragmatic self-contradiction, or the kind that goes with logical necessity. It is suggested that these arguments involve something…Read more
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119On semantics and saṃketa: Thoughts on a neglected problem with buddhist apoha doctrine (review)Journal of Indian Philosophy 34 (5): 415-478. 2006.“...a theory of meaning for a particular language should be conceived by a philosopher as describing the practice of linguistic interchange by speakers of the language without taking it as already understood what it is to have a language at all: that is what, by imagining such a theory, we are trying to make explict." – Michael Dummer (2004: 31)
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Dharmakırti and Dharmottara on the intentionality of perception: Selections from Nyayabindu (an epitome of philosophy)In Jay Garfield & William Edelgass (eds.), Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings, Oup Usa. pp. 186--196. 2009.
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15Response to Jonathan Gold’s Review of Brains, Buddhas, and BelievingPhilosophy East and West 64 (4): 1057-1067. 2014.
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72Intrinsic Validity Reconsidered: A Sympathetic Study of the MÄ«mÄmsaka Inversion of Buddhist Epistemology (review)Journal of Indian Philosophy 29 (5/6): 589-675. 2001.
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23Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of ReligionColumbia University Press. 2005.In _Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief_, Dan Arnold examines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. Arnold retrieves these two very different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent, showing them to have developed highly sophisticated and cogent critiques of influential Buddhist epistemologists such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti. His analy…Read more
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83The Deceptive Simplicity of Nāgārjuna's Arguments Against Motion: Another Look at Mūlamadhyamakakārikā Chapter 2Journal of Indian Philosophy 40 (5): 553-591. 2012.This article – which includes a complete translation of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā chapter 2 together with Candrakīrti’s commentary thereon – argues that notwithstanding the many different and often arcane interpretations that have been offered of Nāgārjuna’s arguments against motion, there is really just one straightforward kind of argument on offer in this vexed chapter. It is further argued that this basic argument can be understood as a philosophically interesting one if it is kept in mind that th…Read more
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17Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India (review) (review)Philosophy East and West 50 (4): 620-623. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in IndiaDan ArnoldBones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. By Gregory Schopen. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. Pp. xvii + 298.For over twenty years now, Gregory Schopen has prolifically been producing articles on th…Read more
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131Dharmakīrti's dualism: Critical reflections on a buddhist proof of rebirthPhilosophy Compass 3 (5): 1079-1096. 2008.Dharmakīrti, elaborating one of the Buddhist tradition's most complete defenses of rebirth, advanced some of this tradition's most explicitly formulated arguments for mind-body dualism. At the same time, Dharmakīrti himself may turn out to be vulnerable to some of the same kinds of arguments pressed against physicalists. It is revealing, then, that in arguing against physicalism himself, Dharmakīrti does not have available to him what some would judge to be more promising arguments for dualism (…Read more
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University of ChicagoRegular Faculty
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Asian Philosophy |