Conventional Realism

Conventional Realism:

According to Thubten Jinpa, Tsong-kha-pa proposes a kind of Conventional Realism (Jinpa 2002: 175). What does this mean? Perhaps for Tsong-kha-pa, a conventional entity such as fire may not withstand the Madhyamaka deconstructing analyses, but nonetheless, on the conventional level, its existence, essence and function are undeniably real. Thus one can distinguish real fire from the “fire” that we experience in a dream. There is, however, no such thing as “absolute fire.” I would think that in fact all proponents of Sautrāntika-Madhyamaka would accept this kind of conventional realism. We shall have to examine this.