This is volume One of texts (from sanskrit and Tibetan sources) of the two planned volumes on Buddhist Ligic (the second volume to be on topics and opponents). This first volumes is in two parts. Part 1 has Asanga`s rules of Debate, Dharmakirti Nyayabindu with Kamalasila commentary and Santi-pa`s treatise on inner pervasion. Part II devoted to the Dignage-Dharmakirti system has five sets of eleven verses then a stydy if Bu-Ston`s commentary ib Dharmakirti`s Pramanaviniscaya and finally Tsong-kha-pa;s Mun sel on the seven books of Dharmakirti.
This book is a coverage of the Mahayana Buddhistic logic of the school of Dignaga. It is in fact the most important work on Buddhist logic ever published. A classic of oriental research, it is founded on a thorough study of original Indian and Tibetan compositions by the great Buddhist logicians. The author was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg school that did monumental work in the field of Indology during the first quarter of this century.
Buddhist logic reveals itself as the culminating point of a long course of Indian philosophic history. Its birth, its growth and its decline run parallel with the birth, the growth and the decline of Indian civilisation. The time has come to reconsider the subject of Buddhist logic in its historical connections. This is done in these two volumes. In the copious notes the literary renderings are given where needed. This will enable the reader to fully appreciate the sometimes enormous distance which lies between the words of the Sanskrit phrasing and their philosophic meaning rendered according to our habits of thought. The notes also contain a philosophic comment on the translated texts. The first volume contains a historical sketch as well as a synthetical reconstruction of the whole edifice of the final shape of Buddhist philosophy. The second volume contains the material as well as the justification for this reconstruction. Content Preface, Abbreviations, Introduction, Part I - Reality and Knowledge (pramanya-vada), Part II-The Sensible world, Ch. 1 The theory of Instantaneous being (ksanika-vada),Ch. II Causation (pratitya-samutpada), Ch. III. Sense-Perception (pratyaksam), Ch. IV - Ultimate reality (paramartha-sat), Part III-The constructed world, Ch. I-Judgment, Ch. II - Inference, Ch. III - Syllogism (pararthanumanam), Ch. IV. Logical Fallacies, Part IV - Negation, Ch. I-The negative judgment, Ch. II. - The Law of Contradiction, Ch. III-Universals, Ch. IV. Dialectic, Part V-Reality of the External World, Conclusion, Indices, Appendix, Addenda et corrigenda. Preface, Appendices, Indices, Errata.
I. RATNAKIRTI. HIS PHILOSOPHICAL CONGENERS AND ADVERSARIES Ratnakirti flourished early in the 11th century A.D. at the University of Vi kramasila, a member of the Yogacara-Vijnanavada school oflate Buddhist philosophy. Thakur characterizes Ratnakirti's writing as "more concise and logical though not so poetical" 1 as that of his guru, Jfianasrimitra, two of 2 whose dicta are focal points of the present work. From a translogical or absolute point of view, Ratnakirti endorses a form of 3 solipsistic idealism. The Sarhtdndntaradu$alJa, his proof of solipsism written from the standpoint ofthe highest truth (paramdrtha), concludes that an exter nal nonmental continuum is impossible. In ultimate reality the cognizing sub ject, its act of awareness, and the cognized object coalesce - all are fabrications superposed on what is really an indivisible evanescent now (svalak$alJa). 4 As Ratnakirti's predecessors have put it: There is neither an 'I' nor a 'he' nor a 'you' nor even an 'it'; neither the thing, nor the not-thing; neither a law nor a system; neither the terms nor the relations. But there are only the cognitive events of colourless sensations which have forms but no names. They are caught for a moment in a stream and then rush to naught. Even the stream is a fiction. That sensum of the moment, the purest particular, that advaya, the indivisible unit of cognition, that is the sole reality, the rest are all fictions, stirred up by time-honoured 5 convention of language which is itself a grand fiction.
This work is primarily an interpretation of Indian Logic preserved in China. The material is mainly taken from K'uei Chi's Great Commentary on the Nyayapravesa. It is not design to be a comprehensive study of Indian Logic in general, nor is it planned to be a complete exposition of K'uei Chi's work in particular. Its scope is confined to formal Logic. The author's intentions are to solve problems which have not yet been settled and to interpreted, instead of duplicating what other people have already done. Much more atttention has been made to fundamental principles and less to the list of fallacies, in particular less to the overelaboration which does not make much sense either theoretically or practically.
"In the present work at attempt has been made to point out that according to Dharmakīrti continued significance and relevance of Buddha's philosophy could be legitimately hoped to be brought out with reference to paradigmaticity of emprical [i.e., empirical] world, the problem of pain and auffering [i.e., suffering] coming to human lot and doctrine of Anattā."--Page 4.
