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- Michael Berman (2004). Merleau-Ponty and Nagarjuna: Relational Social Ontology and the Ground of Ethics. Asian Philosophy 14 (2):131 – 145.Through a comparative analysis of the key ontological notions in Merleau-Ponty and Nagarjuna, I develop a relational social ontology that is grounded in their respective implicit and explicit ethics. Both thinkers take heed of our being-in-the-world; this is evident in their views on intersubjective sociality and language. Recognizing the limitations in these views points us toward a greater understanding of the meaningfulness of our situated existences. In this vein, I propose a number of ideas to guide the work of comparative philosophy.
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