Madhyamaka in South Asia and Beyond

International conference — August 18–22, 2024 — Vienna, Austria

Call for Papers

December 15, 2023: Deadline for registration and panel proposals
February 1, 2024: Deadline for abstracts
For details, see second circular (PDF).

Scholarly engagement with the Madhyamaka tradition has greatly intensified in recent decades, in part due to the discovery of Sanskrit manuscripts of seminal Indian Madhyamaka works as well as of previously unavailable Tibetan scholastic treatises that chart the reception of pertinent Indian Buddhist doctrines. The flurry of publications resulting from philological and philosophical investigation of the texts significantly improves our comprehension of the views of the Madhyamaka authors, their self-understanding, and the reasons behind their responses to their intellectual environments. Nevertheless, many issues remain unsolved, and topics as fundamental as the Mādhyamikas’ final truth/reality continue to be debated.

The International Conference Madhyamaka in South Asia and Beyond will bring together scholars to present and discuss their research on all aspects of the Madhyamaka tradition from philological, historical and/or philosophical perspectives. We invite papers dealing with topics such as the school’s ontological views, its logical and epistemological theories and their sources and integration, its soteriology, historiography, evolution, and transmission, including interactions with other Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools and traditions. Papers from the broader intellectual landscape are also welcome.

Venue: Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria