Pierre-Julien Harter: Buddhist metaphysics?

DEAN'S LECTURE SERIES: 2024 ANNUAL ROHRBACH LECTURE
"Buddhist metaphysics? Making the case for enlarging metaphysics with Madhyamika philosophy, or, how emptiness is relevant to what there is"
Thumbnail image art: Nagarjuna with Thirty of the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas, 1700 - 1799, Rubin Museum of Art
Buddhist metaphysics, especially in the Madhyamika version which insists on the emptiness of all things, has often been interpreted as anti-metaphysical. Yet, it seems that Buddhist philosophers were still after the same question Aristotle wondered about - what is it for something to be? - even when they answered that things are empty of essence or inherent nature. Taking a detour through Aristotelian and Medieval philosophies, this talk attempts to use a more historical definition of metaphysics to argue that a similar feature can be found in both Western meta- physics and in Buddhist Madhyamika thought, a double approach displayed in the special and general metaphysics of the Medievals and the two truths of Buddhist thinkers. This supports reading Buddhist Madhyamika texts as offering metaphysical accounts of reality, but also, conversely, allows us to enrich both our conception of the content of metaphysics and of the kind
of activity it claims to be.
Pierre-Julien Harter is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Philosophy in Buddhist Studies at University of New Mexico. He specializes in Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet. His research on the Buddhist concept of the path has nurtured his wide-ranging interests in differ- ent aspects of Buddhist thought, such as metaphysics and ontology, epistemology, and ethics. He works also on Indian philosophy more broadly, ancient Greek philosophy, and European philosophy, framing his research in the larger context of philosophy by fostering conversations between different philosophical traditions and texts.