WITTGENSTEIN AND BUDDHISM? ON ALLEGED AFFINITIES WITH ZEN AND MADHYAMAKA

Abstract

Buddhism is popular nowadays and so it becomes in analytic philosophy, as an increasing number of publications on possible intersections between analytic philosophy and Buddhism suggests. The paper focuses on two possible intersections between the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Buddhism. Drawing mainly on an article by Rupert Read, it is first assessed whether there are affinities between Wittgenstein and Zen. After that follows a discussion of alleged affinities between Wittgenstein and Indian Madhyamaka. The upshot of this paper will be that, while alleged affinities between Wittgenstein and at least one important variety of Zen lead to a dead end, constructively engaging Wittgenstein and Indian Madhyamaka is surprisingly fruitful if we make two specific exegetical choices. The first exegetical choice is to focus on Wittgenstein's Big Typescript (and related documents). The second exegetical choice is to read Nāgārjuna according to Chandrakīrti and Lama Tsong Khapa (and all three as expounded by Jay Garfield). Under the assumption that these choices are good, further investigations to charter this new terrain appear justified.