By the Light of the Moon:
Candrakirti’s Prasangika Madhyamaka
with Jay L. Garfield
Mondays, Jan 5, 12, 19, 26 & Feb 2, 7-8:30pm EST ONLINE
Note: Registration will be available soon.
Tibetan Buddhist scholars agree that Candrakirti (writing in the 7th century) provides the definitive account of Madhyamaka philosophy, but they deeply disagree among themselves about what that account is. Some, including prominent contemporary scholars, argue that Candrakirti is a radical nihilist—while others argue that Candrakirti provides the resources for reconciling realism with the emptiness of all phenomena.
Candrakirti is not only one of the most creative philosophers of the medieval Indian Buddhist world, but is important in dialogue with contemporary philosophy. Candrakirti’s insights can help modern Buddhists approach difficult concepts with greater confidence. Candrakirti takes conventional truth very seriously. Why does he do so? How can we understand conventional truth in the context of emptiness? How does this connect with Buddhist ethical thought? Together, these positions lead to a constructive understanding of the Madhyamaka worldview, and of their implications for contemporary practice.
Professor Jay Garfield will draw from his recent book, co-authored with Sonam Thakchoë, By the Light of the Moon: Candrakirti’s Prasangika Madhyamaka. The book corrects contemporary and historic misreadings of Candrakirti as a nihilist. The authors show instead that Candrakirti develops a sophisticated understanding of knowledge that remains central to Tibetan Buddhist thought. A close reading of him provides compelling arguments to take common experiences seriously not despite, but because of, its emptiness.
Professor Garfield returns to Shantideva Center having previously led a course on Yogācāra in 2024.
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Additional Materials
Recordings
Recordings will be posted here, Archive page and on our YouTube channel afterwards.
About the Facilitator
Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Buddhist Studies at Smith College, Visiting Professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Academicinfluence.com has identified him as one of the 50 most influential philosophers in the world over the past decade.
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. He is the author or editor of over 30 books and over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews.
Garfield’s most recent books are How to Lose Yourself (with Maria Heim and Robert Sharf 2024), Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self (2022), Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds 2021, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), ̛What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf 2021), The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise From the Inside Out (OUP 2019), Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015).
