Buddhist Illogic (Avi Sion)
Definitive Deconstruction of Nagarjuna
[My 5-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Buddhist Illogic: A Critical Analysis of Nagarjuna’a Arguments†by Avi Sion.]
I have been studying philosophy for forty-five years, and in that time I have come across only a handful of philosophers who really impress me. Well, add another to my short list -- Avi Sion, a professor of philosophy and expert logician.
Because I think Nagarjuna is the most overrated, and destructive, philosopher in the history of Buddhism (see my two-star reviews of "Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas" by David Ross Komito and "The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way" by Jay Garfield), I Googled "Nagarjuna" to find support for my deconstruction of Nagarjuna. When I found Sion's book, I not only found support, I found a brilliant scholar who undermines Nagarjuna'a arguments on a level that I could only dream about. Sion's book at once educated me and saved me a lot of work, because now I no longer need to devote any more time to further deconstructing Nagarjuna; I can simply refer readers to Sion's book.
In this text, Sion, in a dozen chapters (The tetralemma, Neither real nor unreal, Nagarjuna's use of dilemma, The subject-predicate relation, Percepts and concepts, Motion and rest, Causality, Co-dependence, Karmic law, God and creation, Self or soul, Self-knowledge) makes mincemeat of Nagajuna's principal arguments. No clear thinker will think much of Nagarjuna after he considers Sion's counter-arguments.
To give you an idea of how little Sion (who is favorable toward other schools of Buddhist thought) thinks of Nagarjuna's thinking, I'll quote a few of his descriptions of it: "shameless sophistry," a malicious parody of logic," "a ferocious mauling of logic." Sion accuses Nagarjuna of "stealing concepts (using them while undercutting them," "contradicting himself," "manipulating readers in every way," "diverting attention from controversies or outright lying," and "begging the question (circular arguments)."
In short, I cannot recommend "Buddhist Illogic" highly enough to anyone seriously interested in objectively considering Nagarjuna's Madhyamika Buddhism.
[My 5-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Buddhist Illogic: A Critical Analysis of Nagarjuna’a Arguments†by Avi Sion.]
I have been studying philosophy for forty-five years, and in that time I have come across only a handful of philosophers who really impress me. Well, add another to my short list -- Avi Sion, a professor of philosophy and expert logician.
Because I think Nagarjuna is the most overrated, and destructive, philosopher in the history of Buddhism (see my two-star reviews of "Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas" by David Ross Komito and "The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way" by Jay Garfield), I Googled "Nagarjuna" to find support for my deconstruction of Nagarjuna. When I found Sion's book, I not only found support, I found a brilliant scholar who undermines Nagarjuna'a arguments on a level that I could only dream about. Sion's book at once educated me and saved me a lot of work, because now I no longer need to devote any more time to further deconstructing Nagarjuna; I can simply refer readers to Sion's book.
In this text, Sion, in a dozen chapters (The tetralemma, Neither real nor unreal, Nagarjuna's use of dilemma, The subject-predicate relation, Percepts and concepts, Motion and rest, Causality, Co-dependence, Karmic law, God and creation, Self or soul, Self-knowledge) makes mincemeat of Nagajuna's principal arguments. No clear thinker will think much of Nagarjuna after he considers Sion's counter-arguments.
To give you an idea of how little Sion (who is favorable toward other schools of Buddhist thought) thinks of Nagarjuna's thinking, I'll quote a few of his descriptions of it: "shameless sophistry," a malicious parody of logic," "a ferocious mauling of logic." Sion accuses Nagarjuna of "stealing concepts (using them while undercutting them," "contradicting himself," "manipulating readers in every way," "diverting attention from controversies or outright lying," and "begging the question (circular arguments)."
In short, I cannot recommend "Buddhist Illogic" highly enough to anyone seriously interested in objectively considering Nagarjuna's Madhyamika Buddhism.
