Content area
Full Text
John D. Dunne. Foundations of Dharmakirti's Philosophy. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004. Pp. xix + 467. Paper, $39.95.
The diverse traditions of Buddhist thought in South Asia shared a belief that the Buddha's enlightenment was constituted by insight into the nature of reality. In addition to moral training and mental stability, "seeing things the way they really are" (yathabhutadarsana) was considered necessary to achieve liberation from suffering. For this reason, Buddhist traditions in South Asia devoted much energy to philosophical analysis, contesting each other's claims concerning what exactly constituted the "right view" (samyagdrshti). Because non-Buddhist philosophical traditions also regarded knowledge as necessary for liberation, intellectual debates occurred across the boundaries of traditions. Dharmakirti (c. 600-660) is the most significant Buddhist figure in the vibrant, inter-traditional discourse on the philosophy of language, logic, and epistemology in South Asian thought.
Dharmakirti's account of the valid sources of cognition and the types of cognition and knowledge exerted an enormous influence on Indian Buddhist philosophy, and on Tibetan intellectual history. But while Dharmakirti's influence is unquestioned, the content of his philosophy is much debated. His language is terse and indirect, and despite a highly developed technical vocabulary, his texts can be cryptic and quite obscure. As with many South Asian philosophers, this makes his works difficult to interpret without the aid of commentaries....