[INDOLOGY] New book: Nā gā rjuna's Vaidalyaprakaraṇ a: Crushing the Categories

[Jan Westerhoff]

Dear Colleagues,
some of you may be interested in this book, which has just come out:

Crushing the Categories. Vaidalyaprakaraṇa by Nāgārjuna.

Introduction, translation, and commentary by Jan Westerhoff.

American Institute of Buddhist Studies / Wisdom Publications 2018, 320 pp,
ISBN 978-1-949163-00-1.

https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/crushing-categories


"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.”


“This translation of Nāgārjuna’s Vaidalyaprakaraṇa is an
important contribution to Madhyamaka studies, to our understanding of the
history of debates between early Indian Mahāyāna philosophers
and their orthodox interlocutors, and to the history of world philosophy
generally.”
Jay L. Garfield, director, Buddhist studies program and logic program,
Smith College



Very best wishes

Jan Westerhoff



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JC Westerhoff
Lady Margaret Hall
University of Oxford
Norham Gardens
Oxford OX2 6QA
United Kingdom

jan.westerhoff at lmh.ox.ac.uk
www.janwesterhoff.net