Nāgārjuna and the concept of time

ABSTRACT The paper focuses on Nāgārjuna, the founder of the middle way school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It argues that while Nāgārjuna’s rejection of the notion of ontological independence is justified and correct, his philosophical project is incomplete. This stems from the fact that Nāgārjuna’s rejection of the Abhidharma conception of time is not supplemented with the development of an alternative. The paper insists that Nāgārjuna’s endorsement of the doctrine of impermanence without first developing a non-foundationalist conception of time is indefensible. The paper concludes by offering a description of the nature of time which, it submits, will complete the Madhyamaka project.