Speaking with and away: A Buddhist-Christian meta-dialogue (Nagarjuna, Saint John of the Cross)

This dissertation undertakes a comparative philosophical study of the aporia of linguistic transcendence: the dilemma of expressing in language a sacred or most highly esteemed truth deemed not fully expressible in language. It does so by focusing on its appearance, both as stated and shown, in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Basic Verses on the Middle Way) and John of the Cross's Subida del Moune Carmelo (Ascent of Mount Carmel) and Noche Oscura (Dark Night). This study clarifies why the aporia needs to be made explicit, hermeneutically speaking, in order to represent fairly the highest “truth” of each author's tradition. By extension, the aporia provides an appropriate structure for drawing these texts into conversation. As a methodological contribution, this dissertation argues that comparative studies must account for the semantic ambiguity that issues from the aporia.; Specifically, the aporia serves as a heuristic device for structuring a conversation between the Madhyamaka two truths ( satyadvaya) and John of the Cross's apophatic discourse on achieving union with God (unirse de Dios). The aporia engenders an interpretive rubric, manifested as simultaneous epistemic standpoints: the act of articulation of highest truth (from the standpoint of sam&dotbelow;vr&dotbelow;tisatya), the articulation of the failure of articulation (from the standpoint of paramārthasatya), and the realization of “truth” in silence (quietud interior; āryatūs&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;imbhāva ). When language's ability to express “truth” collapses, dialogue shifts to a meta-dialogue, i.e. talk about the failure of language.; This dissertation also sustains a focused critique of the manner in which Ludwig Wittgenstein's latter philosophy (especially Philosophical Investigations) has been recently employed in the interpretation of John of the Cross's apophaticism and Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā . The adoption of Wittgenstein's theory of language games neglects to account for the aporia as indicating both an intra-linguistic indeterminacy (shared by all language games) and an extra-linguistic indeterminacy, either theological transcendence (unirse de Dios for John) or the world as dependently co-arisen (pratītyasamutpāda for Nāgārjuna).; This dissertation, finally, situates implications of the aporia of linguistic transcendence within contemporary philosophies of religions—specifically, constructivism, perennialism, and pluralist theories of religion (especially those perfumed by the later Wittgenstein)—both the theories they advance and the manner in which they employ epistemological categories. Moreover, any philosophy of religion that neglects to foreground the aporia and its simultaneous hermeneutical standpoints that affirm the articulation of “truth,” affirm its revision amidst a heuristic field of ever-unfolding and interdependent meaning, and affirm its representational collapse into silence, runs the risk of misrepresenting the religious tradition in question.