Jay Garfield's magisterial translation of Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way) has established itself as the definitive edition of this foundational Indian Buddhist philosophical text. Nagarjuna is the founder - and his work the foundational text - of the Madhyamaka (or Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism, which predominates in Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. In this book, a companion and supplement to his translation and commentary, Garfield presents fourteen of his essays on Nagarjuna, Madhyamaka, Yogacara and related themes in Buddhist philosophy.
In this volume, Garfield supplements and extends his work on the Mulamadhyamakakarika . He then explores topics in Yogacara philosophy through the works of Vasubandhu and Sthiramati. These discussions focus on Buddhist accounts of the limits of thought and language, of causality, and of the structure of subjectivity. Garfield next addresses the connections and tensions between Buddhist ethics and the liberal democratic discourse of moral and political rights. He concludes by examining the moral and epistemological problems that arise in cross-cultural studies.
The culmination of a decade of research and writing, Empty Words adds new depth to our understanding of Buddhist thought, its relationship to western philosophy, and the nature of cross-cultural scholarship itself.


Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation, Jay L. Garfield, Oxford University Press, Paperback, 306 pages, $56.00

Jay L Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies, Chair of the Philosophy department, and director of the Logic program at Smith College. He is also Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. He has taught in Australia, Singapore, Japan and Germany and is a regular lecturer at major universities, Buddhist Studies centers and research institutions around the world. Professor Garfield is author, co-author, or editor of 30 books and over 180 articles and book reviews.

	Contents: Empty Words : Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation
	PART I. MADHYAMAKA
1.	Epoche and Sunyata: Scepticism East and West	3
2.	Dependent Arising and the Emptiness of Emptiness: Why Did Nagarjuna Start with Causation?	24
3.	Emptiness and Positionlessness: Do the Madhyamika Relinquish All Views?	46
4.	Nagarjuna's Theory of Causality: Implications Sacred and Profane	69
5.	Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought (with Graham Priest)	86
	PART II. YOGACARA
6.	Three Natures and Three Naturelessnesses: Comments Concerning Cittamatra Conceptual Categories	109
7.	Vasubandhu's Treatise on the Three Natures: A Translation and Commentary	128
8.	Western Idealism through Indian Eyes: A Cittamatra Reading of Berkeley, Kant, and Schopenhauer	152
9.	Sounds of Silence: Ineffability and the Limits of Language in Madhyamaka and Yogacara	170
	PART III. ETHICS AND HERMENEUTICS
10.	Human Rights and Compassion: Toward a Unified Moral Framework	187
11.	Buddhism and Democracy	206
12.	The ``Satya'' in Satyagraha: Samdhong Rinpoche's Approach to Nonviolence	220
13.	Temporality and Alterity---Dimensions of Hermeneutic Distance	229
14.	Philosophy, Religion, and the Hermeneutic Imperative	251
	Notes	261
	References	291
	Index	299