Foundations of Buddhist epistemology

In the 6th century C.E., a distinctive movement emerges in Indian Buddhism, to turn into what modern scholarship calls the "logico-epistemological tradition" of Buddhism (short LET). The first two main representatives of the LET, Dignaga (ca. 480-540) and Dharmakirti (ca. 600-660), develop a comprehensive epistemological and logical theory, inheriting a rich and subtle conceptual framework for analysing the mind and its functions from earlier Buddhist philosophy while at the same time confronting it with new problems and methods developed in lively exchange with the major non-Buddhist intellectual traditions of their time. The present project aims to examine central notions of Buddhist epistemology by investigating how Dharmakirti interpreted, employed and elaborated upon two alternative models for explaining the arising of mental events. In later treatises of the tradition, these models are viewed as respectively characteristic for the Yogacara and Sautrantika schools of thought. Concentrating on portions from the chapters on perception of Dharmakirti`s works Pramanavarttika (short PV) and Pramanaviniscaya (short PVin), the present project sets out to provide a case-study of how one of the most eminent Buddhist philosophers in India reshaped inherited conceptions of mental processes in a spirit of philosophical curiosity and critical intelligence. This case study is based on philological groundwork involving the critical constitution and translation of the textual materials at hand. By further relating Dharmakirti`s use of these models to their treatment in earlier Buddhist sources, the project aims to shed light on the history of central Buddhist epistemological ideas and to locate Dharmakirti`s enterprise within a broader historical context.