Mattia SalviniMahidol University2018-11-092018-11-092014-09-01Journal of Indian Philosophy. Vol.42, No.4 (2014), 471-49715730395002217912-s2.0-84956764639https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/33178© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. The first Chapter of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā offers a critique of causation that includes the Abhidharmic category of the ‘four conditions’. Following the South-Asian commentarial tradition, this article discusses the precise relationship between Madhyamaka philosophy and its fundamental Abhidharmic background. What comes to light is a more precise assessment of Madhyamaka ideas about viable conventions, understood as the process of dependent arising. Since this is primarily in the sense of conceptual dependence, it involves sentiency as a necessary causal element, and the relationship between sentiency and conceptuality is highlighted by Nāgārjuna and his commentators. Viable conventions exclude the possibility of a non-contingent core, and the systems and categories that revolve around such non-contingent element (ātman) are discarded by the Madhyamaka even at a conventional level.Mahidol UniversityArts and HumanitiesSocial SciencesArticleSCOPUS10.1007/s10781-014-9219-6