ABSTRACT
By looking at the earliest doxographies of Madhyamaka Buddhism, Jainism, and Advaita Vedanta, this chapter highlights three dialectical teleologies peculiar to each tradition. By organizing philosophical views in these specific manners, doxographies manage to both level a certain criticism of the doctrinal content of each darsana and establish a dialectical path to ‘right view.’ Each teleology reproduces a dialectical attitude which can be traced back to the narrative forms and pedagogies of its specific tradition. This should come as no surprise since these dialectical methods, by conveying specific propaedeutics to truth, characterize the spiritual identity of each tradition: their own conception of the way to go about cultivating liberative knowledge. Doxographies are no neutral maps. They do not merely display the blueprints of the edifice of philosophy without indications. Rather, they offer guidance through a carefully designed dialectical teleology. That teleology is the underlying ‘message’ of the ‘medium’ of doxography.
