Mādhyamika Śūnyatā: A Reappraisal

Description

From the jacket: This volume is a reappraisal of the Madhyamika thought with special reference to Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti. Madhyamika philosophy, specially the Madhyamika Sunyata, has been subjected to much misunderstanding and misinterpretation through the ages. Sunyata traditional has been mistaken either as void in a literal sense or even as the transcendent absolute in certain quarters because of the Tattva here being regarded as Catuskotivinirmukta. What this volume attempts at achieving is to arrive at an adequate understanding of the Madhyamika Sunyata, as it is in its right perspective, by steering clear of the Scylla of nihilism on the one hand and the Charybdis of absolutism on the other. The author aims at giving a fair deal to what he considers to be a unique philosophical enterprise which has received an unfair treatment all along for no apparent fault of it own, and he has based his arguments on the original writings mainly of Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti in support of his thesis. The volume, thus evidently tackling, with a critical and fresh insight various issues associated with the understanding of the Madhyamika thought in general and Sunyata in particular, not only makes significant contribution to the field but is also expected to provide stimulation for further fruitful research in his most interesting area of adventure with Sunyata. About the Author: G. C. Nayak, born at Cuttack (Orissa), India, studied at the Utkal, Allahabad, and Bristol (U.K.) Universities. He got his Ph.D. from Bristol University as a Commonwealth scholar in the year 1965. He was Professor and Head, Post Graduate Dept. of Philosophy of Utkal from 1978 to 1989. From 1989 to 1992 he was the Vice-Chancellor, Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya, Puri, Visiting Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Canada during 1995, Senior Fellow, ICPR during 1996-98, UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Philosophy and Religion, BHU, Varanasi during 1999-2000, also selected as a Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced study, Shimla in 2001. Some of his important publications are Evil, Karma and Reincarnation (1973), Essays in Analytical Philosophy (1978), Philosophical Reflections (1987), Nehru and Indian Culture (1990), Evil and The Retributive Hypothesis (1993), Philosophical Enterprise and the Scientific Spirit (1994) and Understanding Religious Phenomenon (1997).