Pointing at the Moon Buddhism, Logic, Analytic Philosophy

This volume collects essays by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These essays address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions.

1 - Zen and the Unsayable
2 - Wittgenstein and Zen Buddhism: One Practice, No Dogma
3 - The No-Thesis View: Making Sense of Verse 29 of Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani
4 - Why the Buddha Never Uttered a Word
5 - Is Reductionism Expressible?
6 - Mountains Are Just Mountains
7 - How Do Madhyamikas Think? Notes on Jay Garfield, Graham Priest, and Paraconsistency
8 - A Dharmakirtian Critique of Nagarjunians
9 - Would It Matter All That Much If
10 - Svasa?vitti as Methodological

Mario D'Amato is Assistant Professor of Religion at Rollins College. He specializes in Yogacara philosophy and philosophy of religion. His study and translation of the Yogacara treatise Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes will be published in 2009. Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Smith College, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in India. His research addresses topics in Buddhist philosophy, Cognitive Science, and cross-cultural hermeneutics. Tom J.F. Tillemans is Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is one of the world's foremost authorities on Buddhist logic and epistemology, and is General Secretary of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.