Reading Bhatta Jayanta on Buddhist Nominalism
edited by Patrick McAllister
Reading Bhatta Jayanta on Buddhist Nominalism engages with an ancient Indian philosophical theory, called the “exclusion theory” (apoha), which was developed by Indian Buddhists from the fifth century of the common era onward. This theory attempts to explain what universals really are and how they are known, yet without accepting that any two real things are identical with each other, or even similar to each other, in any substantial sense. The manifold philosophical problems arising from this seemingly self-contradictory position, and the Buddhist’s ingenious solution to it, exercised most schools of Indian thought for more than seven centuries and caused the Buddhists to continuously refine their theory. The book bases its investigation of the apoha theory on the succinct and accessible discussion of it found in the Nyayamanjari, a text by the accomplished author and Nyaya philosopher Bhatta Jayanta who flourished late in the ninth century of the common era. In its first part, the book presents a careful edition of the original Sanskrit text of this section of the Nyayamanjari, along with a clear and annotated English translation of this text, and thus enables the reader to gain a first-hand experience of the topic in a concrete historical form. The second part of this book contains seven articles that discuss important issues that the Buddhist theory of universals had to deal with, including ontological, epistemological and linguistic conundrums, all of which are discussed in Jayanta’s text. These contributions try to answer these questions with different methods, ranging from a critical-historical analysis to the speculative philosophical approach, and often combining them for best results. These articles are arranged according to the date of their main subject matter, structurally following the presentation which Jayanta himself chose, and shine spotlights on stages of the apoha theory’s development from the fifth to eleventh century of the common era. This combination of a complete primary text with scholarly articles exploring several of its topics in more depth is intended to allow the informed reader to approach this important episode in the history of philosophy in an engaging and methodically sound manner, and to present new insights into the history of the apoha theory to the scholarly community.
- Edited by Patrick McAllister
Other Titles in this Series
Death and Beyond in Ancient Tibet
Archaic Concepts and Practices in a Thousand-Year-Old Illuminated Funerary Manuscript and Old Tibetan Funerary Documents of Gathang Bumpa and Dunhuang
Volume 77
Reverberations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy
Proceedings of the Fifth International Dharmakirti Conference Heidelberg, August 26 to 30, 2014
Volume 104
In Clear Words
The Prasannapada, Chapter One: Volume I: Introduction, Manuscript Description, Sanskrit Text Volume II: Prasannapada, Tibetan Text
Volume 86
Tantrikabhidhanakosa III
Dictionnaire des termes techniques de la litterature hindoue tantrique / A Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature / Worterbuch zur Terminologie hinduistischer Tantren
Volume 76
Scriptural Authority, Reason and Action
Proceedings of a Panel at the 14th World Sanskrit Conference, Kyoto, September 1st-5th, 2009
Volume 79
History and Transmission of the Nyayamanjari
Critical Edition of the Section on the Sphota.
Volume 91
From Birch Bark to Digital Data
Recent Advances in Buddhist Manuscript Research: Papers Presented at the Conference Indic Buddhist Manuscripts: The State of the Field. Stanford, June 15-19 2009
Volume 80
A Fine Blend of Mahamudra and Madhyamaka
Maitripa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikara)
Volume 90
Buddhist Epistemology as Apologetics
Studies on the History, Self-understanding and Dogmatic Foundations of Late Indian Buddhist Philosophy
Volume 81
Anton Schiefner (1817-1879). Briefe und Schriftenverzeichnis
Briefe an Bernhard Jalg (1825-1886), Karl Ernst von Bar (1792-1876), Reinhold Kohler (1830-1892), Victor Hehn (1813-1890), August Friedrich Pott (1802-1887), Ernst Jung (1846-1920), L. Diefenbach (1806-1883), E. Forstermann (1822-1906) und K. Dziatzk
Volume 94
Une critique bouddhique du Soi selon la Mimamsa
Presentation, edition critique et traduction de la Mimamsakaparikalpitatmapariksa de Santaraksita
Volume 84
Marga
Paths to Liberation in South Asian Buddhist Traditions. Papers from an International Symposium held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 17 - 18 December, 2015
Volume 100
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