Professor%20Jan%20Westerhoff: List of publications
Showing 1 to 31 of 31 publications
Candrakërti's Introduction to the Middle Way A Guide
January 2024
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Book
This Oxford Guide is designed for the philosophically interested student or scholar reading Candrakīrti's Introduction to the Middle Way, a key text in the Buddhist philosophical tradition.
Philosophy
Goodman, solipsism, and immaterialism
July 2022
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Journal article
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Constructivist Foundations
Open peer commentary on the article “A Defence of Starmaking Constructivism: The Problem of Stuff” by Bin Liu. Abstract: I consider two problems arising in the context of Goodmanian constructivism as discussed by Bin Liu: the question of solipsism and the status of immaterial minds.
FFR
Response to my CRITICS
May 2022
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Journal article
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Analysis
FFR
The non-existence of the real world
May 2022
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Journal article
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Analysis
FFR
An argument for ontological nihilism
June 2021
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Journal article
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Inquiry
This paper has two main aims. I first argue that ontological nihilism, that is, the view that there are no things is a consistent position. Second, I discuss an argument for the view that nihilism is not just possible but actually true, that is that there actually are no things (This paper is not meant as an addition to the considerable literature on the question of why there is something rather than nothing. Of course, any attempt to answer this question would have to presuppose the conclusion of the first section, that is, that nihilism is a consistent position. But if the argument in the second section goes through the question we would then have to answer is not why there is something rather than nothing, but why there is nothing rather than something). My argument is based on two main premisses, eliminativism (‘only the fundamental exists’) and non-foundationalism (‘it’s dependence all the way down’) which jointly entail ontological nihilism. I conclude with some reflections on the consequences of the nihilist position for the project of constructing a fundamental metaphysical theory.
Does the real world, defined as a world of objects that exist independent of human interests, concerns, and cognitive activities, really exist? Jan Westerhoff argues that we have good reason to believe it does not.
Philosophy
Book review: The Fifth Corner of Four: An Essay on Buddhist Metaphysics and the Catuṣkoṭi, by Graham Priest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 208.
August 2019
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Journal article
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Mind
FFR
Crushing the Categories
April 2019
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Book
Some remarks on a problem in Madhyamaka philosophy of language
August 2018
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Journal article
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Ratio
This paper attempts to dissolve an apparent difficulty arising in the philosophy of language as discussed by the Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka school. On the one hand Madhyamaka seems to be claiming that every entity is fundamentally linguistic in nature, on the other hand it also asserts that language does not exist. I argue that the difficulty is to be dissolved by distinguishing two different senses of language appealed to by the Mādhyamikas. They argue that one specific understanding of language is deficient (and that therefore language thus understood does not exist), but this is not the same sense of language according to which everything is linguistic in nature. The apparent contradiction is thereby resolved.
Nāgārjuna, pan-fictionalism, Madhyamaka, philosophy of language, Buddhist philosophy
The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy
May 2018
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Book
"Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the ...
Metaphysical vertigo
January 2018
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Chapter
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Studies in the Ontology of E.J. Lowe, Editiones Scholasticae, Neunkirchen-Seelscheid
Sastravid
January 2018
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Dataset
Śāstravid (http://sastravid.theology.ox.ac.uk/index.php) is an ERC-funded web-based electronic research tool for the study of Indian philosophy. It contains a number of Indian philosophical texts (primarily from the Buddhist Madhyamaka school), some of them in the original Sanskrit, some in historical or modern translations. The unique structure of Śāstravid represents both the explicit relationships among texts—where one is a commentary on, or a translation of, another—and their conceptual connections. A researcher can view each passage in each Śāstravid text together with related commentaries and translations, and can move directly from there to other Śāstravid texts that make related points. Researchers can also browse the concepts and texts published in the system.
These XML files represent the data from the tool and a key to the file naming abbreviations.
Nāgārjuna and the philosophy of language
December 2017
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Journal article
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Journal of Indian Philosophy
The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the key points of Nāgārjuna’s discussion of problems relating to the philosophy of language. We will focus on two works from Nāgārjuna’s yukti-corpus that address these matters most explicitly, the Vigrahavyāvartanī (VV) and the Vaidalyaprakaraṇa (VP). The discussion will concentrate on four topics: Nāgārjuna’s views on semantics, the problem of empty names, the relation between language and momentariness, and the implications of Madhyamaka views on parts and wholes for the existence of language.
Nāgārjuna, Madhyamaka, philosophy of language
Madhyamaka and modern western philosophy: a report
January 2017
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Journal article
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Buddhist Studies Review
In the past the study of Asian philosophical traditions has often been approached by asking how the theories developed within these non-Western cultures would help us to solve problems in contemporary Western philosophy. The present account, which summarizes results of a research project funded by the Templeton foundation in 2015 attempts to reverse this way of studying Asian philosophy by investigating which theories, approaches and models from contemporary Western philosophy can used to support, analyze, refine and advance insights into key questions discussed by Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka. Our discussion concentrates on six key philosophical areas that can contribute in important ways to the analysis and development of Madhyamaka thought: metaphysics, logic, semantics, cognitive science, philosophy of science, and ethics.
Buddhism without reincarnation? Examining the prospects of a 'naturalized' Buddhism
January 2017
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Chapter
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A Mirror Is For Reflection. Understanding Buddhist Ethics
What it Means to Live in a Virtual World Generated by Our Brain
June 2016
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Journal article
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Erkenntnis
5003 Philosophy, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 5002 History and Philosophy Of Specific Fields, Neurosciences
On the Nihilist Interpretation of Madhyamaka
April 2016
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Journal article
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Journal of Indian Philosophy
5004 Religious Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 5002 History and Philosophy Of Specific Fields
Studies in Buddhist Philosophy
March 2016
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Book
This volume brings together nineteen of Mark Siderits's most important essays on Buddhist philosophy.
The Connection Between Ontology and Ethics in Madhyamaka Thought
November 2015
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Chapter
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Moonpaths Ethics and Emptiness
The volume combines careful textual analysis and doctrinal exposition with philosophical reconstruction and reflection, and considers a variety of ways to understand the structure of Mahayana Buddhist ethics.
Madhyamaka and Yogacara Allies Or Rivals?
March 2015
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Book
This collection of essays addresses the degree to which these philosophical approaches are consistent or complementary. Indian and Tibetan doxographies often take these two schools to be philosophical rivals.
Philosophy
Nagarjuna's Yogaaa
March 2015
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Chapter
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Madhyamaka and Yogacara Allies Or Rivals?
This collection of essays addresses the degree to which these philosophical approaches are consistent or complementary. Indian and Tibetan doxographies often take these two schools to be philosophical rivals.
Philosophy
Moonpaths: Ethics and Madhyamaka Philosophy
January 2015
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Edited book
The Limits of Realism, by Tim Button
January 2015
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Journal article
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Mind
5003 Philosophy, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies
Indian Buddhist Philosophy. By Amber D. Carpenter.
May 2014
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Journal article
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Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
Madhyamaka: Conventional Categories in Madhyamaka Philosophy
January 2014
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Chapter
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Categorisation in Indian Philosophy Thinking Inside the Box
Categories (Philosophy)
Metaphysical Issues in Indian Buddhist Thought
April 2013
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Chapter
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A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy
The volume will expand readers’ understanding of the breadth and diversity of Buddhist thought, with many of the chapters written from a comparative perspective.
Philosophy
The Merely Conventional Existence of the World
November 2010
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Chapter
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Moonshadows:Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy
Philosophy
Twelve Examples of Illusion
September 2010
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Book
The book uses a variety of crystal-clear examples drawn from a wide variety of fields, including contemporary philosophy and cognitive science, as well as the history of science, optics, artificial intelligence, geometry, economics, and ...
Religion
The Dispeller of Disputes: Nāgārjuna's Vigrahavyāvartanī
January 2010
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Book
Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka. A Philosophical Introduction