Ratnakirti’s Proof of Exclusion

by Patrick McAllister

Book cover: Ratnakirti’s Proof of Exclusion

Extent: 394 pages

Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press

Subjects: Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies

Series: Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse

Series volume number: 898

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(February 2020)

ISBN: 9783700184003

Price: $95.00

In stock

The theory of universals that was developed and upheld by Buddhist philosophers in pre-modern India since the sixth century CE is famous for its central claim that any judgment of a similarity between things is due not to anything substantially real that the things share, but to their difference from other things (“anyapoha”). This book investigates the theory as it is presented in the “Apohasiddhi”, a work written by the Buddhist monk and teacher Ratnakirti in the eleventh century, during the last flowering of philosophical activity in Indian Buddhism.


The theory of universals that was developed and upheld by Buddhist philosophers in premodern India since the sixth century CE is famous for its central claim that any judgment of a similarity between things is due not to anything substantially real that the things share, but to their difference from other things (“anyapoha”). This book investigates the theory as it is presented in the “Apohasiddhi”, a work written by the Buddhist monk and teacher Ratnakirti in the eleventh century, during the last flowering of philosophical activity in Indian Buddhism.

  • By (author) Patrick McAllister