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Otto the Renunciant's avatar

There are some interesting thoughts here, and I think I'm going to need to look into PCT. I particularly liked the part where you describe how it is conflict between drives that gives rise to awareness, which fits very well into the idea that all the aggregates are inherently unsatisfying (this would indicate they arise precisely because they are unsatisfying).

I think this piece needs more citations and direct quotes to bolster it. As someone who hasn't read about PCT, I found a lot of the assertions rather vague. Same goes for Madhyamaka, which is not the school/tradition that I practice within. As someone who is interested in both of these topics, this post, if spruced up with more citations, quotes, overviews of the systems, etc., could serve as a really solid launching pad for further investigation.

This is an ambitious piece that I think could be really fantastic, but I think it's too short. I put it into a word counter out of curiosity, and I see it's only 3,400 words. What I would want to see as a reader who is genuinely interested in this and wants to extract as much understanding as I can from it is would be a section that explains PCT using references and quotes, a section that explains Madhyamaka, again using references and quotes from Nagarjuna, etc., and then various sections that merge these thoughts. Without that, it came across as vague.

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Michael Kowalik's avatar

As I argued elsewhere, I agree with the central premises (related to the systemic effect), but there is no consistent argument here, yet. There is potential, but a lot of work ahead.

Some suggestions. Any functional terms (“emptiness”, “inherent existence” vs “existence” etc) need to be either defined or abandoned. All subjective epithets need to go; stick to what can be clearly defined or is uncontroversial. If your argument is consistent then it can be proven, it should stand on its own feet, in which case the Buddhist views and PCT add nothing to it. If they had good arguments there would be nothing more to prove.

Good luck!

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