Deconstructing the Self: From Nāgārjuna’s Śūnyatā and Catuṣkoṭi to Candrakīrti’s Sevenfold Reasoning

1) Śūnyatā: Nāgārjuna’s Core Insight

In classical Madhyamaka, śūnyatā (“emptiness”) does not mean nonexistence. It means the absence of svabhāva, any intrinsic, independent essence by which a thing would exist from its own side. Nāgārjuna argues that whatever appears does so dependently — on causes and conditions, on parts, on concepts and conventions. Therefore, things have conventional efficacy (they work, they matter), but ultimately they are empty of an independent core. Emptiness and dependent arising are not two different doctrines; for Nāgārjuna, they are the same fact, seen from two angles: because things arise dependently, they are empty; because they are empty, they can arise and function dependently.

This insight undercuts two perennial extremes: eternalism (reifying a permanent self or essence) and nihilism (denying all functioning). The Madhyamaka middle shows that phenomena exist conventionally (valid within everyday practice and discourse) but lack ultimate independent reality.

2) The Catuṣkoṭi (Tetralemma): Nāgārjuna’s Analytic Knife

Nāgārjuna’s signature tool is the catuṣkoṭi (tetralemma), which tests any claim by four…