非同一律：作為內在關係論的存在論─大乘中觀學派性空論辨微=The Law of Non-identity as an Ontology of Internal Relations: A Discussion of the Madhyamaka School's Theory of Empty Nature
This article seeks to clarify the true significance of the Madhyamaka school’s concept of emptiness of self-nature. This theory of empty nature, in contemporary popular understanding, is often understood as being anti-ontological, or as a type of relativism, or a sophisticated dialectic. A commonality in these interpretations is that they all misunderstand the self-nature toward which the Madhyamaka’s emptiness is directed. This paper, relying on Madhyamaka texts, presents an in-depth analysis of the core concepts of “empty,” “self-nature,” “dependent origination,” and “identity with nature,” showing that this concept of self-nature, strictly defined, refers to “self-identity.” Therefore, the theory of emptiness serves as a type of non-identity theory. Its core message is directed at a complete deconstruction of identity, and its proposition is opposite the law of identity (A is A), thus expressed in the form of non-identity (A is not A). As a core concept of the Madhyamaka school, emptiness of nature is directed at dependent origination. This point, for the Madhyamaka school, is of crucial importance, because it guarantees the purely deductive nature of the “emptiness of nature”; from this, its quality of necessary truth is also guaranteed. The deconstruction of identity in the theory of emptiness of nature is not based on logic, but is based on ontology, and uses the two truths to interpret the contradiction between a logical “law of identity,” and an ontological “law of non-identity.” As an ontology of phenomenology and internal relations theory, Madhyamaka’s theory of emptiness of nature bears comparison with phenomenology and existentialism.
