Rodicheva I. The concept of "Emptiness" in the ancient Oriental philosophy as a subject of comparative analysis: Shunyavada and Taoism.

The thesis is devoted to the comparative analysis of the concept of "Emptiness" in the philisophy of the two ancient Oriental teachings: Shunyavada and Taoism. The thesis analyzes the characteristics of theoretical and methodological basis of historical and philosophical studies of the concept "Emptiness", the concept of emtiness of dharmas, the doctrine of identity of samsara and nirvana, and the theory of "anatman". The doctrine of "16 kinds of Empiness" and the concept of the 7-aspect Taoist Emptiness have been considered as a unitary doctrine of Emptiness, which is comprehended in the Ancient Oriental culture through the achievement of the "mystical experience", the void state of liberation (moksha) or enlightenment (min). Symbolic interpretation of Emptiness in the two philosophical systems through the model of "continuous" motion in "the circle of life" has been defined. Historical and philosophical interpretation of the basic characteristics of the Ancient Chinese Tao concept as Emptiness, which corresponds to the "initial lack" and predetermines all the changes of the substance "Qi" has been disclosed. The author offers her version of the translation of the Buddhist notion of nirvana, more closely correlating with the definition of emptiness and revealing a positive sense of the word: "stop the wind of ignorance". Using the comparative analysis the author reveals similarities and differences in the definition of Emptiness in the two analyzed ancient teachings: Taoism and shunyavada. The thesis has proved interrelation of the basic concepts "madhyamik sunyata" and "Tao emptiness", taken as independent units of philisophical discourse in ancient Oriental philosophy. The fundamental unity of the two philosophical systems of thought (Taoism and shunyavada), expressed in overcoming duality and achieving the state of emptiness, has been substantiated.