Indian Logic Forum

Plamen · Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:04 am Post subject: Buddhist Logic

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Plamen · Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:32 am Post subject: Nyaya-bindu on Perception

Preface to Buddhist Logic
being a translation of Nyaya-bindu of Dhramakirti
with the Tika (Gloss) of Dharmottara
translated by Th. Stcherbatsky

More than twenty years have elapsed since we have first treated the subject of Buddhist logic and epistemology as they were taught in the schools of Mahayana Buddhism. Our nearly unique source at that time was the Nyaya-bindu and tika, this solitary Sanskrit remnant of what has been a vast field of literary production. Since that time our knowledge of the subject has been considerably enlarged.

Important Sanskrit texts have been discovered and published in India, The interconnection and mutual influences of Indian systems are better known. The Tibetan literature reveals itself as an almost illimited source of information. Prof. H. Jacobi has contributed a series of articles on the early history of Indian systems. Prof. J. Tucci has recently elucidated the problem of Buddhist logic before Dignaga. Prof. de la Vallee Poussin has brought to a successful end his monumental translation of the Abhidharma-kosa. Prof. Sylvani Levi has enriched our knowledge by important discoveries in Nepal. Prof. M. Walleser has founded in Heidelberg an active society for the study of Mahayana. A great deal of work has been done by Indian and Japanese scholars.

The Nyaya-bindu is no more a solitary rock in an unknown sea. Buddhist logic reveals itself as the culminating point of a long course of Indian philosophic history. Its birth, its growth and its decline run parallel with the birth, the growth and the decline of Indian civilisation. The time has come to reconsider the subject of Buddhist logic in its historical connections. This is done in these two volumes of which the second apears before the first. It contains translations which aim at heing intelligible, a reservation not unnecessary in Indian matters, since we have witnessed translations by authoritative pens which read like an absolutely unintelligible enigma. In the copious notes the literary renderings are given where needed.

Plamen · Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:21 am Post subject:

Buddhist Logic
volume II, chapter 2
being a translation of Nyaya-bindu of Dhramakirti
with the Tika (Gloss) of Dharmottara
translated by Th. Stcherbatsky

The reader who would like to have a vue d'ensemble of Buddhist philosophy as it is represented in its logical part will have to go through the labyrinth of the texts and make for himself a statement as well as an estimate of that doctrine. This task is facilitated in the first volume which will coutain a historical sketch as well as a synthetical reconstruction of the whole edifice of the final shape of Buddhist philosophy, as far as it can be achieved at present. The second volume thus contains the material as well as the justification for this reconstruction.

В§ 1. DEFINITION AND RESULT
(17.1). After having done with perception, (the author) proceeds to analyse inference and says,
1. Inference is twofold.
(17.3). Inference is twofold, i.e., there are two different inferences. Now, what is the reason for (our author) to start suddenly by pointing out this division, when we would expect a definition? We answer. Inference В«for othersВ» consists of propositions, (it is a communication). Inference В«for oneselfВ»is an (internal) process of cognition. Since they are absolutely different things, no inclusive definition is possible. (17.5). Thus it is intended to give (two different) definitions, each appertaining to one class only, (and for this aim it becomes necessary) to start with a division. For a division is an indication (of the number) of instances. When this has been done, it becomes possible to frame definitions suited to each case separately. Not otherwise. Thus to state a division means (here) to divide the definitions.[1] Having realized that it is impossible to do it (here) without previously indicating the number of instances, the author begins by setting forth the division.[2]
___________
[1] Lit., p. 17.7. В« Therefore the statement about the division of species is (here) nothing but (eva) a means (anga) of distinguishing between the definitions)).
[2] Dignaga's reform in logic aimed at a distinction between logic as a theory of cognition and logic as a teaching about various dialectical methods. The logic of the early Naiyayikas was exlusively dialectical. Dignaga therefore deals with dialectics under the heading of inference В«for the othersВ». The three-membered syllogism belongs ouly indirectly to the province of epistemological logic along with other dialectical methods. But inference as a process of thought distinguished from sense-perception is quite a different thing. Our terminology is so much influenced by Aristotle that we cannot free ourselves enough to find terms corresponding to Indian Logic.

Plamen

Registered members download the first part of the third book on Syllogism of Nyaya-bindu translated by Th. Stcherbatsky. There are two files awaible for download - a PDF image file and a recognised DOC file (not proof-read).

Plamen

THE PRAMANAVARTTIKAM
of
DHARMAKIRTI

An English Translation of the First Chapter (Svarthanumana-pariccheda) with the
Autocommentary and with Elaborate Comments

Karikas I-LI

translated by Professor S. MOOKERJEE. M. A., Ph. D.
DIRECTOR, NAVA NALANDA, MAHAVIHARA
and
HOJUN NAGASAKI, M.A.
RESEARCH SCHOLAR, NAVA NALANDA MAHAVIHARA