The Fist Is Indistinguishable from Five Clenched Fingers

Mereological Anti-Realism in Sinitic Madhyamaka Buddhism

Bibliographic Data

ID22134209
AuthorsErnest Billings BREWSTER (Institute for Social Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume11
Issue2
Pages56
Publication date2026-04-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2409-9287 • E-ISSN: 2409-9287
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/philosophies11020056
OpenAlexW7151400059
LanguageEN
References cited15

Mereological anti-realism denies the intrinsic reality of both composite wholes and their constituent parts. This paper analyzes the mereological anti-realist argumentation developed by the Sino-Parthian scholar-monk Jizang 吉藏 (549–623 CE) targeting the mereological realist doctrine of the Brāhmaṇical Vaiśeṣika tradition in his understudied Exegesis on the Middle Treatise (Zhongguan lun shu中觀論疏) and Exegesis on the Hundred Verse Treatise (Bailun shu百論疏). By counterbalancing Jizang’s critiques with the Vaiśeṣika mereological realist doctrine on its own terms, this paper critically assesses the viability and coherence of Jizang’s arguments that there are no entities that instantiate mereological relations or properties. An examination of Jizang’s critique of Vaiśeṣika mereological realism brings to light how the Madhyamaka Buddhist doctrine avoids metaphysical nihilism in accounting for how both wholes and parts can possess causal efficacy without being attributed intrinsic reality in and of themselves

Argumentation theory · Buddhism · Doctrine · Mereology · Metaphysics · Nihilism · Realism · Skepticism · Chinese history and philosophy · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Indian and Buddhist Studies

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