When we understand that something is a pot, is it because of one property that all pots share? This seems unlikely, but without this common essence, it is difficult to see how we could teach someone to use the word "pot" or to see something as a pot. The Buddhist apoha theory tries to resolve this dilemma, first, by rejecting properties such as "potness" and, then, by claiming that the element uniting all pots is their very difference from all non-pots. In other words, when we seek out a pot, we select an object that is not a non-pot, and we repeat this practice with all other items and expressions. Writing from the vantage points of history, philosophy, and cognitive science, the contributors to this volume clarify the nominalist apoha theory and explore the relationship between apoha and the scientific study of human cognition. They engage throughout in a lively debate over the theory's legitimacy. Classical Indian philosophers challenged the apoha theory's legitimacy, believing instead in the existence of enduring essences. Seeking to settle this controversy, essays explore whether apoha offers new and workable solutions to problems in the scientific study of human cognition. They show that the work of generations of Indian philosophers can add much toward the resolution of persistent conundrums in analytic philosophy and cognitive science.

A Book On Buddhist Theory Of Semantics. Deals With The New Branch Of Philosophy Of Languages And Specifically Convers Buddhism. Useful For Those Interested In Research Of Buddhist Semantics.

Verse exegesis on the 1st adhyāya, 1st pāda of Śabarasvāmī's Mīmāṃsābhāṣya, classical commentary on Jaimini's Mīmāṃsāsūtra, basic work of the Mīmāṃsā school in Hindu philosophy.

Buddhist philosophy as discussed in the six systems of Hindu philosophy; a study.

Exegesis of Gautama's Nyāyasūtra, aphoristic work setting forth the fundamental considerations of the Nyāya school of Indic philosophy.

The proceedings of the Third International Dharmakirti Conference held in Hiroshima in 1997 collect a number of papers devoted to the study of the great seventh-century Buddhist philosopher, Dharmakirti, and his impacts upon the succeeding generations of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophers in India and Tibet. The Second International Dharmakirti Conference was held in Vienna, and its proceedings, Studies in the Buddhist Epistemological Tradition, have been published in this same series. The present volume contains the results of the important researches made by the major Dharmakirtian scholars in the world since the last conference, so that the readers can discover the present state of affairs in the field of Buddhist epistemology and logic. Some papers are concerned with the epistemological topics, such as the notion of perceptibility, and others with the purely logical problems like an empty subject. Some deal with the Buddhist theory of language called apoha in comparison with the views of Nagarjuna, Bhartrhari and others, while others are devoted to the ontological questions, such as how to determine the causal relationship. Several papers discuss Dharmakirti in the light of criticism made by Jaina, Nyaya or Minamsa philosophers. And finally the most remarkable feature of the present volume is the increase of number of contributions devoted to the study of Tibetan tradition of Buddhist epistemology and logic which has been developed under the great influence of Dharmakirti.