Graduation Year
2026
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Martin Glazier
Reader 2
Ahmed Alwishah
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2026 Isabella R Sullivan
Abstract
This thesis investigates the soteriological implications of Nāgārjuna’s doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) as presented in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK), or Root Verses of the Middle Way. While Nāgārjuna’s radical denial of intrinsic existence (svabhāva) is widely recognized as a masterful critique of metaphysics, modern scholarship remains divided on whether this "right view" can sufficiently ground the Buddhist Path to Liberation. This project centers on a comparative analysis of two prominent modern interpretations: Jay Garfield’s semantic anti-dualism and Giuseppe Ferraro’s anti-metaphysical realism.
The inquiry evaluates these perspectives against the doctrinal frameworks of the Four Noble Truths, dependent origination (DO), and the Two Truths doctrine. I argue that Garfield’s interpretation, which reduces ultimate truth to a mere conventionality about the absence of ultimate truth, risks trivializing spiritual progression and leaving the practitioner vulnerable to a subtle form of nihilism. By collapsing the distinction between deluded and awakened cognition into mere conceptual clarity, the semantic view struggles to account for the non-conceptual, transformative experience of nirvāṇa.
In contrast, I defend Ferraro’s anti-metaphysical realism, which maintains that emptiness is an ineffable ultimate truth structured by dependent origination rather than by human linguistic convention. By preserving the pedagogical ultimacy of emptiness, Ferraro provides a more robust account of how rational analysis serves as a catalyst for the spiritual transformation necessary for Liberation. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that emptiness must be understood as an ultimate yet non-metaphysical truth if Nāgārjuna’s philosophy is to remain a viable soteriology.
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Isabella R., "Emptiness is Enlightenment: Two Interpretations of Nāgārjuna's Middle Way as Buddhist Soteriology" (2026). Scripps Senior Theses. 2741.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2741
Included in
Buddhist Studies Commons, Epistemology Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Philosophy of Language Commons
