3 research outputs found
āSnakes and Laddersā ā āTherapyā as Liberation in Nagarjuna and Wittgensteinās Tractatus
This paper reconsiders the notion that Nagarjuna and Wittgensteinās Tractatus may only be seen as comparable under a shared ineffability thesis, that is, the idea that reality is impossible to describe in sensible discourse. Historically, Nagarjuna and the early Wittgenstein have both been widely construed as offering either metaphysical theories or attempts to refute all such theories. Instead, by employing an interpretive framework based on a āresoluteā reading of the Tractatus, I suggest we see their philosophical affinity in terms of a shared conception of philosophical method without proposing theses. In doing so, this offers us a new way to understand Nagarjunaās characteristic claims both to have āno viewsā (MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ 13.8 and 27.30) and refusal to accept that things exist āinherentlyā or with āessenceā (svabhÄva). Therefore, instead of either a view about the nature of a mind-independent āultimate realityā or a thesis concerning the rejection of such a domain, I propose that we understand Nagarjunaās primary aim as ātherapeuticā, that is, concerned with the dissolution of philosophical problems. However, this ātherapyā should neither be confined to the psychotherapeutic metaphor nor should it be taken to imply a private enlightenment only available to philosophers. Instead, for Nagarjuna and Wittgenstein, philosophical problems are cast as a source of disquiet for all of us; what their work offers is a soteriology, a means towards our salvation