Madhyamaka Buddhist Metaethics:
The justificatory grounds of moral judgments

Philosophy East and West  65 (3): pp.765-785 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2015.0071

This article investigates whether the metaphysical commitments of Madhyamaka Buddhism afford a satisfactory justificatory ground for moral judgments. Finnigan and Tanaka (2011a) argue that they do not. Their argument has since been challenged by Tillemans (2010-11), who alleges that both Svātantrika and Prāsaṅgika Mādhyamikas can readily justify moral judgments by respective appeal to the doctrine of the two truths. This paper shall contest this claim with respect to Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka. It shall provide several arguments to show that Prāsaṅgika cannot satisfactorily justify their fundamental moral judgments by appeal to the notion of conventional truth.