Is mind changing, or is it the world?
Is mind changing, or is it the world?

Summary/Abstract: If in view of the previous chapters we can’t know the world exactly as it is (or better, is becoming), and if our knowledge is invariably tinged with a note of fallibilism, then it stands to reason that our posture should evince a note of skepticism – and here, of course, with a respectful nod, we must take our leave from Davidson’s optimistic journey toward ‘truth’. This chapter briefly entertains skepticism as a philosophical mind-set by way of Roman philosopher Sextus Empiricus and Buddhist thinker, Nāgārjuna, in view of the suspension and unsuspension of belief and disbelief, while avoiding free-fall into nihilism. The complementarity of Nāgārjuna’s ‘conventional truths’ and ‘Absolute Truth’ enter the picture, in light of realism and relativism and objectivism and subjectivism, which ushers in Nāgārjuna’s ‘middle way’ between any and all contradictory alternatives. In order to render proper account of the ‘middle way’, discussion turns to Nāgārjuna’s interpretation of emptiness. This further reveals the inadequacy of holding exclusively to the tenets of classical logical principles, and it opens the door to additional meditation on ‘tacit knowing’ developed by Michael Polanyi.

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