Primary Literature

[NB. Of the many different translations of Nāgārjuna’s works this list gives those English versions (often accompanied by a traditional or modern commentary) that are particularly accessible to philosophers without specialized training in Indology.]

• Jay Garfield, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way. Translation and Commentary of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Siderits, Mark and Shōryū Katsura: Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2013. (Scholar)
• Jay Garfield, Geshe Ngawang Samten, Ocean of Reasoning. A Great Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā by rJe Tshong Khapa, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. (Scholar)
• Mabja Jangchub Tsöndrü, Ornament of Reason. The Great Commentary to Nāgārjuna’s Root of the Middle Way, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2011. (Scholar)
• Ian Coghlan, Buddhapālita’s Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: Buddhapālita-Mūlamadhyamaka-Vṛtti, Boston, Wisdom, 2022. (Scholar)
• Joseph Loizzo, Nāgārjuna’s Reason Sixty (Yuktiṣaṣṭikā) with Chandrakīrti’s Commentary, New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2007. (Scholar)
• Peter Della Santina, Causality and Emptiness: The Wisdom of Nāgārjuna, Singapore: Buddha Dharma Education Association, 2002. Includes a translation of the Śūnyatāsaptati. [Available online].
• Jan Westerhoff, The Dispeller of Disputes: Nāgārjuna’s Vigrahavyāvartanī, New York, Boston: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Wisdom Publications, 2010. (Scholar)
• Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, Nāgārjuna’s Refutation of Logic (Vaidalyaprakaraṇa), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1995. (Scholar)
• Jan Westerhoff, Crushing the Categories. Vaidalyaprakaraṇa by Nāgārjuna, New York, Boston: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Wisdom Publications, 2018.
• Jeffrey Hopkins, Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1998. (Scholar)
• Khensur Jampa Tegchok, Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness. A Commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Boston: Wisdom, 2017. (Scholar)
• Christian Lindtner: Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna, Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1982.

Secondary literature

• Ames, William, 1982. “The notion of svabhāva in the thought of Candrakīrti”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 10: 161–177. (Scholar)
• Burton, David, 1999. Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nāgārjuna’s Philosophy, Richmond: Curzon. (Scholar)
• Devitt, Michael, 1997. Realism and Truth, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, second edition. (Scholar)
• Garfield, Jay, 1994. “Dependent co-origination and the emptiness of emptiness: why did Nāgārjuna begin with causation?”, Philosophy East and West, 44: 219–250. (Scholar)
• –––, 2001. “Nāgārjuna’s theory of causation: implications sacred and profane”, Philosophy East and West, 51(4): 507–524.
• –––, 2015. Engaging Buddhism. Why It Matters to Philosophy, Oxford University Press: New York. (Scholar)
• Goodman, Charles, 2004. “The Treasury of Metaphysics and the Physical World”, Philosophical Quarterly, 54 (216): 389–401. (Scholar)
• Huntington, C.W., 1989. The Emptiness of Emptiness. A Study of Early Indian Mādhyamika, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. (Scholar)
• Lindtner, Christian, 1982. Nagarjuniana. Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna, Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag. (Scholar)
• Mabbett, Ian, 1998. “The problem of the historical Nagarjuna revisited”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 118(3): 332–346. (Scholar)
• McGuire, Robert, 2017. “An all-new timeless truth”, Contemporary Buddhism, 18(2): 385–401. (Scholar)
• Oetke, Claus, 2003. “Some remarks on theses and philosophical positions in early Madhyamaka”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 31: 449–478. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989. “Rationalismus und Mystik in der Philosophie Nāgārjunas”, Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, 15: 1–39. (Scholar)
• Priest, Graham, 2009. The structure of emptiness, Philosophy East and West, 59(4): 467–480
• –––, 2014. One, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Priest, Graham and Jay Garfield, 2002. “Nāgārjuna and the limits of thought”, in Beyond the Limits of Thought, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 249–270.
• Ruegg, David Seyfort, 1977. “The use of the four positions of the catuṣkoṭi and the problem of the description of reality in Mahāyāna Buddhism”. Journal of Indian Philosophy, 5: 1–171. (Scholar)
• –––, 1981. The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India, Wiesbaden: Harassowitz. (Scholar)
• –––, 1986. “Does the Mādhyamika have a thesis and philosophical position?”, in Bimal Krishna Matilal (ed.), Buddhist Logic and Epistemology, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, pp. 229–237. (Scholar)
• Siderits, Mark, 2004. “Causation and emptiness in early Madhyamika”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 32: 393–419. (Scholar)
• –––, 2003. Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy, Aldershot: Ashgate. (Scholar)
• –––, 2000. “Nyāya realism, Buddhist critique”, in Bina Gupta (ed.), The Empirical and the Transcendental, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 219–231. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989. “Thinking on empty: Madhyamaka anti-realism and canons of rationality”, in Shlomo Biderman and Ben-Ami Scharfenstein (eds.), Rationality in Question, Leiden: E.J. Brill, pp. 231–249. (Scholar)
• –––, 1980. “The Madhyamaka critique of epistemology”. Journal of Indian Philosophy, 8: 307–335. (Scholar)
• –––, 2014. “Causation, ‘Humean’ causation and emptiness”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 42: 433–449. (Scholar)
• –––, 2016. Studies in Buddhist Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2022. How Things Are. An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Siderits, Mark and J. Dervin O’Brien, 1976. “Zeno and Nāgārjuna on Motion”, Philosophy East and West, 26(3): 281–299. (Scholar)
• Jonathan Stoltz, 2021: Illuminating the Mind. An Introduction to Buddhist Epistemology, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Spackman, John, 2014. Between nihilism and anti-essentialism: a conceptualist interpretation of Nāgārjuna, Philosophy East and West, 61(1): 151–173. (Scholar)
• Tillemans, Tom, 2001. “Trying to be fair to Mādhyamika Buddhism”, The Numata Yehan Lecture in Buddhism, University of Calgary, Canada. (Scholar)
• –––, 2003. “Metaphysics for Mādhyamikas”, in Georges Dreyfus and Sara McClintock (eds.), The Svātantrika-Prāsaṅgika Distinction: What Difference does a Difference make?, Boston: Wisdom, pp. 93–123. (Scholar)
• Tuck, Andrew P., 1990. Comparative Philosophy and the Philosophy of Scholarship: on the Western Interpretation of Nāgārjuna, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Walser, Joseph, 2005. Nāgārjuna in Context. Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• Westerhoff, Jan, 2009. Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka. A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• –––, 2016: “On the nihilist interpretation of Madhyamaka”. Journal of Indian Philosophy, 44: 337–376. (Scholar)
• –––, 2017: “Nāgārjuna on emptiness: a comprehensive critique of foundationalism”, in Jonardon Ganeri (ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• –––, 2020: The Non-Existence of the Real World, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2021: “An argument for ontological nihilism”. Inquiry, doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2021.1934268 (Scholar)
• Wood, Thomas E., 1994. Nāgārjunian Disputations. A Philosophical Journey through an Indian Looking-glass, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. (Scholar)
• Ye, Shaoyong, 2011. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Research Institute of Sanskrit Manuscripts & Buddhist Literature, Beijing.