Nāgārjuna used rigorous arguments to show that things lack independent essence, presenting emptiness as the implication of dependent arising rather than another substance.
Intellectual setting
Nāgārjuna argued within Indian Buddhist debates over Abhidharma analysis, emerging Mahāyāna literature, causation, and the possibility of making liberating claims without reifying them.
Key ideas
Emptiness
Phenomena are empty of self-established nature because they arise dependently through relations, causes, and conceptual practices.
Two truths
Conventional discourse remains necessary even while analysis shows that its objects do not possess ultimate independent foundations.
Legacy
Madhyamaka traditions across India, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan repeatedly developed his analyses of emptiness, language, and the middle way.
Scholarly notes
Dates and attributed works · contested
Nāgārjuna’s exact dates and the boundaries of the attributed corpus remain disputed; the displayed span is an editorial approximation rather than a settled biography.