Robert Magliola - Jacques Derrida and Buddhism

Jacques Derrida and Buddhism

Magliola is a specialist in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, in comparative philosophy, and in Buddhist – (Roman) Catholic dialogue ; see also Buddhism and Roman Catholic Church. He is widely acknowledged to be the first scholar to have identified and published at length (Derrida on the Mend, 1984) on possible intersections between Jacques Derrida’s thought and Buddhism, especially Madhyamika Buddhism and its generally accepted “founder,” Nagarjuna:

• “As far as I know, Magliola is the first person to study Derrida in a Buddhist perspective, and he does this with a higher degree of speculative engagement than has been attained in similar studies of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Bergson.” – Joseph S. O’Leary, review of Derrida on the Mend in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4, p. 362

• “The latter ] is a major work from an author whose earlier book, Derrida on the Mend, was the first to cross Buddhism and deconstruction.” – N. Robert Glass, review of David Loy, ed., Healing Deconstruction-, and Robert Magliola, On Deconstructing Life-Worlds, in Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 5 (1998), p. 60

• “Since Robert Magliola’s 1984 publication Derrida on the Mend, which involved his pioneering comparison of Derrida and Nagarjuna, . . .” – Youru Wang, review of Youxuan Wang, Buddhism and Deconstruction: Towards a Comparative Semiotics, in Philosophy East and West, Vol. 55, No. 3 (July 2005)

• “It took Magliola, in Derrida on the Mend, to bring Nagarjuna and other Buddhist voices into the arena of the discourse on deconstruction, and the efforts of the academy to marginalize his work have been considerable.” – E. H. Jarow, “Zen Flesh, Bones, and Blood: Deconstructing Inter-Religious Dialogue,” in Buddhisms and Deconstructions, ed. Jin Y. Park, with “After-word” by R. Magliola, p. 228.

For other references to Derrida on the Mend making a similar point, see Harold Coward (Derrida and Indian Philosophy, State U. of New York Press, 1990, p. 125), Dennis McCort (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 1 (2003), p. 225 (See review, here), and Ellen Y. Zhang (“Jizang’s Śūnyatā-Speech: A Derridean Dénégation with Buddhist Negations,” in Buddhisms and Deconstructions, ed. Park, p. 116).

Brian Bocking and Youxuan Wang point out, in their “Signs of Liberation?—A Semiotic Approach to Wisdom in Chinese Madhyamika Buddhism,” The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sept. 2006) (See article in Ingenta, here), that Derrida on the Mend also works with the Chan/Zen form of Buddhism, pioneering the comparison of this Far Eastern tradition and several Western semiotic themes: “As early as 1984, certain semiotic themes in Chinese Chan Buddhism were picked up in Robert Magliola, Derrida on the Mend, . . . .”