Inspired by Jacques Derrida’s reading of Emmanuel Levinas in “Violence and Metaphysics,” this paper attempts to bring Nāgārjuna into a dialogue with these two European philosophers, showing how the issue of violence is viewed differently in both traditions. This first step of investigation is to look into how violence is told in the hagiographical narratives in the Madhyamika Buddhist tradition. Then I will try to see how violence is tacitly treated in Madhyamika philosophy, while Levinas and Derrida will be taken as the interlocutors to bring to the surface some hidden insights. The reason why I place Nāgārjuna, Derrida and Levinas together is that all of them show their distrust to metaphysics of the same. They all try to find the exit, the opening space, by which the oppression in metaphysics of identity can be hopefully overcome.
