The Temporality of The Social—A Buddhist Middle Way Perspective

How does the dimension of time contribute to the constitution of society? This is a significant issue in the realm of social ontology. In this paper, the author attempts to engage a dialogue between Buddhist Middle Way philosophy and sociological theory in order to have a better understanding of the emptiness of time as well as society, and thereby reconsider the dependent co-arising of both time and society. Through the articulation of the central notion of the middle way perspective, the author rejects both extremes of substantialism and nihilism in regard to time and the social. The middle way insight of the emptiness and non-substantial nature of the world explains that there is no eternal, or fixed “social being” behind the temporal flux of changing phenomena. I subsequently analyze Nagarjuna’s deconstruction of time in chapter XIX of The Fundamental Wisdom of The Middle Way ( Mulamadhyamakakarika), which reveals that it is incongruous to assume time as three isolated self-existent entities. And argues that if any one of these time units has their own-being, then the conception of time would lose its coherence and becomes self-contradictory. Next, I try to apply this insight to the understanding of the constitution social process, in which, I claim that neither “time” nor “social entity” can persist permanently, but only a change of social phenomena over time and a flux of time through social phenomena. Then, I would argue, that according to the middle way perspective, the emptiness and dependent co-arising of time is the condition of possibility of hermeneutic understanding and the fusion of horizons. It makes possible the ongoing process of interpretation whereby the true meaning of a social event, a text, a work of art, or an historical occurrence is never complete. Finally, I try to discuss the temporal constitution of the self. I argue that only if we can recognize the relativity and dependent co-arising of temporal continuity and change, we can then understand the constitution of mind, self and society.