nagarjunanyaya

Nagarjuna versus Nyaya (Indian Realism)

Correspondences between objections of the realist opponents and Nagarjuna's replies:

1	21,22,23
2	24
3	25,26,27,28
4	29
5,6	30-51
7,8	52-56
9	57-59
10	60
11	61-63
12	64
13-16	65-67
17	68
18	68
19	?
20	69
	70, a concluding statement

Nagarjuna:

Everything arises interdependently. Nothing has self-existence.

Question (by the Realists):

How can you say, that nothing has self-existence? What is the basis, or knowledge source (pramana, "justifier"), for your claim?

Nagarjuna:

There is none. Your thinking like that is what's wrong.

Realists:

Since you cite no knowledge source (pramana), you have no right to say what you say.

Nagarjuna:

Only according to you do I need a "knowledge source."

Nagarjuna continues in prasanga (refutational) mode (cf., Socratic elenchus):

Tell me, once you identify a knowledge source (pramana) for a claim, what is the source (pramana) for the identification?

Realists:

(a) It's like a self-illumining lamp.

(b) It's like a scale that can be calibrated. (Identification of causes of knowledge depend on context.)

Nagarjuna:

The analogies are inapt:

(a) A lamp does not illumine itself, for it does not stand in need of illumination.

(b) Something to-be-proved cannot be a prover, that is to say, a knowledge source (pramana), because that would be like a father being the son of his own son.