Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy by John D. Dunne

Author:John D. Dunne [Dunne, John D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Philosophy, Religion, Buddhism, Tibetan, Buddhist, Epistemology, Logic
ISBN: 9780861718559
Google: _yrECoPTYj0C
Amazon: B00B6U13QS
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2013-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

4 Instrumentality: Justifying the Sources of Knowledge

SO FAR WE HAVE EXAMINED some issues in Dharmakīrti’s ontology by way of his views on instrumental objects (prameya); we have also discussed svabhāvapratibandha as the basis for his theory of inference. In this chapter, we will inquire into the foundations of Dharmakīrti’s epistemology. More specifically, we shall examine what it is that justifies the claim that perception and inference are each an instrument of knowledge (pramāṇa). In the language of Pramāṇa Theory, this is the question of “instrumentality” (prāmāṇya), an issue that Pramāṇa Theorists generally treat as a topic of discussion in and of itself. It concerns not the workings of an alleged instrument of knowledge—be it a perception, an inference, the sense faculties, a sacred text, or some other candidate—but rather what it is that justifies the claim that one or another of these is indeed an instrument of knowledge. To introduce the central issues at stake in discourse on instrumentality (prāmāṇya), we will first discuss some critical problems of translation. In doing so, we will clarify the manner in which Dharmakīrti’s theory of instrumentality is tied to his conception of the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. The relevance of Dharmakīrti’s ultimate goal will lead us to the problem of a seeming circularity in Dharmakīrti’s theory of instrumentality, which in turn will prompt us to consider the implicitly axiological context of Dharmakīrti’s thought. With all these issues in hand, we will then assay a close analysis of Dharmakīrti’s theory of instrumentality itself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.