Madhyamaka is Not Nihilism

Introduction Nāgārjuna (c. 200 CE) is the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy, and easily, after the Buddha himself, the most influential philosopher in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. Despite the great consensus on his philosophical and doctrinal importance, there is little consensus, either in the canonical Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature of India, Tibet and East Asia, or in the contemporary secondary literature of European and Asian Buddhist Studies regarding the interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s work. In virtue of his distinctive doctrine that all phenomena are empty (śūnya) and that nothing exists ultimately (paramartha), but that things only exists conventionally (vyvavahāra/samvṛti), he has often been accused of defending nihilism. (Matilal 2002, Wood 1994) His assertions in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way) and in Vigrahavyāvartanī (Reply to Objections) that he defends no thesis, and his willingness to deny all four limbs of certain tetralemmas (catuṣkoṭi) add fuel to this fire.