Method
Prasaṅga
Classification
- Method family
- dialogical
- Domains
- Metaphysics , Philosophy of Mind
Overview
Prasaṅga examines a thesis by drawing out consequences of its own assumptions, often without replacing it with an independent metaphysical counter-thesis.
Purpose. The method loosens commitment to claims of intrinsic existence by showing what follows when those claims are worked through. Prasaṅga is not identical to generic reductio: its role and force belong to Madhyamaka debates about how, or whether, one should establish a thesis of one's own.
Characteristic operations
- Take up the thesis: Begin from the opponent's stated claim and commitments.
- Trace its consequences: Apply the claim consistently to the case under examination.
- Show the difficulty: Reveal contradiction, circularity, regress, or another consequence the thesis cannot sustain.
- Withhold a reified alternative: Avoid turning the critique into another claim about an intrinsically existing reality.
Used by traditions
Applied to questions
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Logic in Classical Indian Philosophy, §3.2
- Mark Siderits and Shōryū Katsura, Nāgārjuna's Middle Way: Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Wisdom Publications, 2013)
- Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā I.1–14 (analysis of conditions and production)
- Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā XVIII.1–6 (analysis of self and appropriation)