"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 beginning ..."
"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. His discussion considers four main facets of assuming an external world, ranging from the existence of a separate external and internal world (comprising various mental states congregated around a self), to the existence of a ..."
Reality(1st Edition) A Very Short Introduction by JanWesterhoff Paperback, 136 Pages, Published 2013 by Oxford ISBN-13: 978-0-19-959441-2, ISBN: 0-19-959441-4
"'What is real?' has been one of the key questions of philosophy since its beginning in antiquity. It is a question that, due to such films as The Matrix, has also made its way into popular culture. But it is not just a question philosophers ask. It is also asked by scientists when they investigate whether the fundamental constituents of matter are actually 'out there' or just a mere abstraction from a successful theory. Cognitive scient ..."
"Madhyamaka and Yogacara are the two principal schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. While Madhyamaka asserts the ultimate emptiness and conventional reality of all phenomena, Yogacara is idealistic. 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. They are grounded in distinct ..."
"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 beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of philosophical schools and approaches that have sha ..."
"This volume brings together nineteen of Mark Siderits's most important essays on Buddhist philosophy. Together they cover a wide range of topics, from metaphysics, logic, philosophy of language, epistemology, and ethics, to the specific discussions of the interaction between Buddhist and classical Indian philosophy. Each of the essays is followed by a postscript that Siderits has written specifically for this volume. The postscripts co ..."
Twelve Examples of Illusion(1st Edition) by JanWesterhoff Hardcover, 199 Pages, Published 2010 by Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-538735-3, ISBN: 0-19-538735-X
"Tibetan Buddhist writings frequently state that many of the things we perceive in the world are in fact illusory, as illusory as echoes or mirages. In Twelve Examples of Illusion, Jan Westerhoff offers an engaging look at a dozen illusions--including magic tricks, dreams, rainbows, and reflections in a mirror--showing how these phenomena can give us insight into reality. For instance, he offers a fascinating discussion of optical illusi ..."
"Madhyamaka and Yogacara are the two principal schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. While Madhyamaka asserts the ultimate emptiness and conventional reality of all phenomena, Yogacara is idealistic. 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. They are grounded in distinct ..."
"Second, within Madhyamaka, Candrakīrti's text occupies a very prominent role. This is primarily due to its enormous influence in Tibet, where Candrakīrti's work became the main entry-point into the study of Madhyamaka thought."
Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka(1st Edition) A Philosophical Introduction by JanWesterhoff Hardcover, 256 Pages, Published 2009 by Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-537521-3, ISBN: 0-19-537521-1
"The Indian philosopher Acharya Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) was the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism and arguably the most influential Buddhist thinker after Buddha himself. Indeed, in the Tibetan and East Asian traditions, Nagarjuna is often referred to as the 'second Buddha.' His primary contribution to Buddhist thought lies is in the further development of the concept of sunyata or 'emptiness.' For Nag ..."
Ontological Categories(1st Edition) by JanWesterhoff Hardcover, 276 Pages, Published 2006 by Clarendon Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-928504-4, ISBN: 0-19-928504-7
"The concept of an ontological category is central to metaphysics. Metaphysicians argue about which category an object should be assigned to, whether one category can be reduced to another one, or whether there might be different equally adequate systems of categorization. Answers to these questions presuppose a clear understanding of what precisely an ontological category is, an issue which is rarely addressed; Jan Westerhoff presents t ..."
Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka(1st Edition) A Philosophical Introduction by Lecturer JanWesterhoff Paperback, 256 Pages, Published 2009 by Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-538496-3, ISBN: 0-19-538496-2
"Eli Franco: 'Once again on Dharmakirti's deviation from Dignāga on pratyak.
sābhāsa', Journal of Indian Philosophy 14, 1986: ... Erich Frauwallner: 'On the
date of the Buddhist master of the law Vasubandhu', Instituto Italiano per il Medio
ed ..."
"Erich Frauwallner: 'Der arische Anteil an der indischen Philosophie', Wiener
Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 46, 1939: 267–91. Erich Frauwallner:
'On the date of the Buddhist master of the law Vasubandhu', Instituto Italiano per il
..."
"So prominent was the integration of Yogācāra ideas into his Madhyamaka
thought that, in numerous Tibetan ... to his descriptions of consciousness: his
rejection of objects existing as utterly distinct from the consciousness perceiving
them; and ..."
"perceptible in the first place.73 Although “reading back” later categories in earlier
texts may not always be warranted, it often makes a system more
comprehensible, cogent, and philosophically sophisticated rather than not;
considering this, I believe that the traditional doxographical distinction between
Yogācāra and Madhyamaka should be taken as a fundamentally fruitful
heuristics to gain a sense of direction in a large collecti ..."
Reality A Very Short Introduction by JanWesterhoff 136 Pages, Published 2011 by Oup Oxford ISBN-13: 978-0-19-163807-7, ISBN: 0-19-163807-2
"For more information on Cotard's syndrome, see chapter 8 of David Enoch and
Adrian Ball, Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes (Hodder & Stoughton, 2001). For
an overview of the different locations of the self throughout history, see Giuseppe
Santoro et al., 'The Anatomic Location of the Soul From the Heart, Through the
Brain, To the Whole Body, and Beyond', Neurosurgery, 65(4) (2009): 633–43.
Daniel Dennett's 'Where Am I?' is reprinted i ..."
"The problem of “object permanence,” i.e., when two distinct perceptions are
regarded as being caused by a single thing, has been investigated extensively in
developmental psychology. Two now classical discussions are Jean Piaget's
Construction of Reality in the Child (New York: Basic Books, 1955) and Elizabeth
Spelke's paper “Principles of Object Perception,” Cognitive Science 14 (1990),
pages 29–56. For a study of psychological re ..."
The Dispeller of Disputes Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani by JanWesterhoff 152 Pages, Published 2010 by Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-988982-2, ISBN: 0-19-988982-1
"... it is essentially a copy of the Sanskrit text with very little change, even though it
does take account of the Tibetan translation.8 The most useable edition of the
Sanskrit is one prepared by Elgin H. Johnston and Arnold Kunst up to the
former's ..."