The Moon Points Back

The Moon Points Back comprises essays by both established scholars in Buddhist and Western philosophy and young scholars contributing to cross-cultural philosophy. It continues the program of Pointing at the Moon (Oxford University Press, 2009), integrating the approaches and insights of contemporary logic and analytic philosophy along with those of Buddhist Studies in order to engage with Buddhist ideas in a contemporary voice.The essays in the volume focus on the Buddhist notion of emptiness (sunyata), exploring its relationship to core philosophical issues concerning the self, the nature of reality, logic, and epistemology. The volume closes with reflections on methodological issues raised by bringing together traditional Buddhist philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy.The Moon Points Back demonstrates convincingly that integration of Buddhist philosophy with contemporary analytic philosophy and logic allows for novel understandings of and insights into Buddhist philosophical thought. It also shows how Buddhist philosophers can contribute to debates in contemporary Western philosophy and how contemporary philosophers and logicians can engage with Buddhist material.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Deguchi Yasuo, Jay L. Garfield, Graham Priest, and Koji Tanaka Chapter 1: Persons Keeping Their Karma Together: The Reasons for the Pudgalavada in Early Buddhism - Amber Carpenter Chapter 2: On Minds, Dharmakirti and Madhyamaka - Tom J.F. Tillemans Chapter 3: On Being Humean about the Emptiness of Causation - Ricki Bliss Chapter 4: Essence and Emptiness - Roy W. Perrett Chapter 5: The Net of Indra - Graham Priest Chapter 6: Buddhist Reductionism and Emptiness of Huayan Perspective - Nicholaos Jones Chapter 7: Constructing Logic of Emptiness: Nishitani, Jizang, and Paraconsistency - Yasuo Deguchi Chapter 8: Nagarjuna's Logic - Aaron Cotnoir Chapter 9: Conventional Truth and Intentionality in the Work of Dharmakirti - Laura Guerrero Chapter 10: Relativism in Buddhist Philosophy: Candrakirti on Mutual Dependence and the Basis of Convention - Elena Walsh Chapter 11: Two Truths and Method - Jay L. Garfield Contributors References Index

About the Author :
Koji Tanaka is Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University. Yasuo Deguchi is Professor of Philosophy, Kyoto University. Jay L. Garfield is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor in the Humanities at Yale-NUS College and Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities at Smith College. Graham Priest is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne.

Review :
"A fantastic volume by some of the world's leading scholars working on the interaction of Western and Buddhist philosophy. It conveys a real sense of excitement about the way the two traditions can advance each other. Highly recommended to philosophers and scholars of Buddhism alike." --Jan Westerhoff, University of Oxford "This collection should be of interest to anyone who has followed recent discussions in analytic Buddhist philosophy. But there may be something here as well for those working in mainstream analytic metaphysics, logic, philosophy of language or epistemology who are simply curious to see what the project might amount to. They may find that delving into another tradition can suggest novel ways of thinking about the issues that concern us." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews