(7th c. ad) Indian philosopher and logician of the yogacara school of Buddhism. Dharmakirti was a perceptual idealist, but his principal influence was to establish the basis of logical relations in reality. His major work was the Pramanavarttika or ‘Explanation of the Touchstones’.
Dharmakirti
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(7th c. ce)
Born in south India, Dharmakīrti was a leading representative of the Buddhist school of logic (pramāṇa) at Nālandā. Relying on Yogācāra and Sautrāntika doctrines, he wrote a number of key works, the most important of which is his Pramāṇa-vārttika, in which he extends and develops the thought of his predecessor Dignāga, dealing with matters of epistemology and logic. The Pramāṇa-vārttika contains four chapters dealing with inference, the validity of knowledge, sense-perception, and syllogisms. Few of Dharmakirti's writings survive in the original Sanskrit but all are preserved in Tibetan translation.
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Dharmakirti (ca. 7th century), was an Indian scholar and one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic. He was one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, according to which the only items considered to exist are momentary Buddhist atoms and states of consciousness.
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History
Born around the turn of the 7th century, Dharmakirti was a South Indian Brahmin and became a teacher at the famed Nalanda University, as well as a poet. He built on and reinterpreted the work of Dignaga, the pioneer of Buddhist Logic, and was very influential among Brahman logicians as well as Buddhists. His theories became normative in Tibet and are studied to this day as a part of the basic monastic curriculum.
Writings
- The Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition:
- Saṃbandhaparikṣhāvrtti (Analysis of Relations)
- Pramāṇaviniścaya (Ascertainment of Valid Cognition)
- Pramāṇavārttikakārika (Commentary on Dignaga's 'Compendium of Valid Cognition')
- Nyāyabinduprakaraṇa (Drop of Reasoning)
- Hetubindunāmaprakaraṇa (Drop of Reasons)
- Saṃtānāntarasiddhināmaprakaraṇa (Proof of Others' Continuums)
- Vādanyāyanāmaprakaraṇa (Reasoning for Debate)
Philosophy
Dharmakirti presents most of his ideas in the guise of commentary on Dignaga's works, even if his theories go beyond what was presented by his predecessor. Some of his ideas, like his proof for the authority of the Buddha's words, are innovations, for Dignaga considered language just as fallible as inference.
There has long been disagreement among Indian and Tibetan doxographers as to how to categorize Dharmakirti's thought. The Gelug school asserts that he expressed Yogachara views, most non-Gelug Tibetan commentators assert that he expressed Sautrantika views and, according to one Tibetan source, a number of renowned later Indian Madhyamikas asserted that he expressed Madhyamaka views.[1]
References
- Buddhist Logic (1932) by Fyodor Stcherbatsky introduced the West to Buddhist logic, and more specifically to Dignaga. Although pioneering, this work is now regarded as outdated by some Buddhist scholars.[citation needed]
- A contemporary work is Dunne, John D. (2004). Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy. Somerville, Mass.: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-184-x. http://books.google.com/books?id=Z1p4V4_lnY4C.
- There is also extensive discussion of the Dharmakirti's Tibetan reception in Dreyfus, Georges (1997). Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations. New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791430987.
- Tillemans, J.F. (1999). Scripture, Logic, Language: Essays on Dharmakirti and His Tibetan Successors. Somerville, Mass.: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-156-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=2fWSdQmCRT0C.
See also
Notes
- ^ “Ngawang Palden in the Sautrantika chapter of his Explanation of the Conventional and the Ultimate in the Four Systems of Tenets (Grub mtha’ bzhi’i lugs kyi kun rdzob dang don dam pa’i don rnam par bshad pa legs bshad dpyid kyi dpal mo’i glu dbyangs, New Delhi: Guru Deva, 1972, 39.5-39.6) says that some such as Prajñakaragupta, Suryagupta, Shantarakshita, Kamalashila, and Jetari interpret Dharmakirti’s Commentary on [Dignaga’s] Compendium of Valid Cognition (Tshad ma rnam ’grel, Pramanavarttika) as a Madhyamika treatise." Dependent-Arising and Emptiness: A Tibetan Buddhist Interpretation of Madhyamika Philosophy Emphasizing the Compatibility of Emptiness and Conventional Phenomena Napper, Elizabeth. Boston: Wisdom Publications. p. 685, note 142
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