The purpose of the course is to introduce central themes of early Buddhist thought from an historical-critical perspective through the medium of comparative study. Extracts from the Madhyama-āgama preserved in Chinese will be made available in English translation, so that these can be compared with their Pāli counterparts. The discourses selected from the Madhyama-āgama for a more detailed study are related to the topics of "the arahant" and "the four (noble) truths", which are the central themes that will be taken up during the course.