Due largely to contact with the living Tibetan Buddhist tradition, it has become commonplace to distinguish two branches of Buddhist Madhyamika philosophy: Svatantrika and Prasangika. Nowadays one finds references to Prasangika philosophy and Svatantrika philosophy as if these were self-evident and unproblematic categories on a par with other doxographical distinctions. The present volume scrutinizes this distinction more critically, clarifying and highlighting its problematic nature as well as suggesting arguments that may support it. Each contributor focuses on particular texts and figures involved in the evolution of the distinction, in both India and Tibet. Although all the essays deal with the same questions, they often come to startlingly different conclusions. This disagreement reflects the individual perspectives of the authors, but also signals the highly contested nature of the Svatantrika-Prasangika distinction itself, making for a fascinating exploration of the intellectual heritage of modern Tibetan Buddhism.

Svatantrika-Prasangika Distinction, George Dreyfus & Sara McClintock, editors, Wisdom, 398 pp, $34.95

Georges Dreyfus was the first Westerner to obtain the title of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree confered within the traditional Tibetan monastic system. He is presently Professor of Religion at Williams College. Sara L. McClintock,

McClintock is a Senior Lecturer and Research Associate in Religion and Asian Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She received her BA from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in Religion from Harvard University. Her research focuses on the philosophical traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, with a special interest in the rhetorical nature of Buddhist conceptions of reason.

Introduction                                       1  
Part 1: Examining the Distinction in the Indian
Tradition
  Bhavaviveka's Own View of His Differences        41 
  with Buddhapalita
        William L. Ames
  Was Candrakirti a Prasangika?                    67 
        C. W. Huntington, Jr.
  Metaphysics for Madhyamikas                      93 
        Tom J. F. Tillemans
  The Role of the ``Given'' in the                 125
  Classification of Santaraksita and Kamalasila
  as Svatantrika-Madhyamikas
        Sara L. McClintock
  The Satisfaction of No Analysis: On Tsong kha    173
  pa's Approach to Svatantrika-Madhyamaka
        Malcolm David Eckel
Part 2: Examining the Distinction in the
Tibetan Tradition
  Phya pa chos kyi seng ge as a Svatantrika        207
        Helmut Tauscher
  Tsong kha pa's Reevaluation of Candrakirti's     257
  Criticism of Autonomous Inference
        Chizuko Yoshimizu
  Two Views on the Svatantrika-Prasangika          289
  Distinction in Fourteenth-Century Tibet
        Jose Ignacio Cabezon
  Would the True Prasangika Please Stand? The      317
  Case and View of 'Ju Mi pham
        Georges B. J. Dreyfus
Abbreviations                                      349
Bibliography                                       351
Index                                              375
About the Contributors                             397