The Refutation of the Self in Indian Buddhism: Candrakīrti on the Selflessness of Persons (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism)

Since the Buddha did not fully explain the theory of persons that underlies his teaching, in later centuries a number of different interpretations were developed. This book presents the interpretation by the celebrated Indian Buddhist philosopher, Candrakīrti (ca. 570–650 C.E.). Candrakīrti’s fullest statement of the theory is included in his Autocommentary on the Introduction to the Middle Way ( Madhyamakāvatārabhasya ), which is, along with his Introduction to the Middle Way ( Madhyamakāvatāra ), among the central treatises that present the Prāsavgika account of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) philosophy. In this book, Candrakīrti’s most complete statement of his theory of persons is translated and provided with an introduction and commentary that present a careful philosophical analysis of Candrakīrti’s account of the selflessness of persons. This analysis is both philologically precise and analytically sophisticated. The book is of interest to scholars of Buddhism generally and especially to scholars of Indian Buddhist philosophy. "Since the Buddha did not fully explain the theory of persons that underlies his teaching, in later centuries a number of different interpretations were developed. This book presents one of these interpretations by the celebrated Indian Buddhist philosopher, Candrakīrti (ca. 570-650 C.E.). Candrakīrti's theory is part of the "Introduction to the Middle Way" ("Madhyamakāvatāra"), which is the central treatise upon which the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) School of Indian Buddhist philosophy was developed. In this book, the text is translated and provided with an introduction and commentary, which offers a careful analysis and historical context on Candrakīrti's account of the selflessness of persons. A philosophical analysis of an ancient Indian philosophical text that is both philologically precise and analytically sophisticated, this book is of interest to scholars of Buddhism generally and Buddhist philosophy"-- Provided by publisher