STUDIES IN BUDDHIST PRAMANAVADA (EPISTEMOLOGY AND LOGIC) IN WESTERN EUROPE*
The essay analyzes an important area of Western European Buddhology-studies of Buddhist epistemology and logic. The article presents the research results of leading Buddhist scholars from the main schools of the British, German, French, Austrian, Italian, and Dutch, their main publications, ideas, and methodology.
Keywords: Buddhist logic, Buddhist epistemology, pramanavada, Western European Buddhology, history of Buddhology.
Before presenting the state of research of the Buddhist pramanavada (Skt. - "the doctrine of the tools of reliable knowledge"), it is necessary to define the range of related concepts of Indian thinkers, which today are considered epistemology and logic. The importance of this definition is due to the fact that in the traditional Indian culture, in which Buddhism originated, knowledge was structured differently than in the Western culture. In Indian philosophy, epistemology and logic are not two different disciplines, but one. It has historically changed both its content and designations (for more information, see [Kanaeva, 2011; Lysenko, 2011 (1); Lysenko, 2011(2)]). One of the classical disciplines in Ancient India was the theory of debate, which in Sanskrit was designated by the terms hetuvidya, vadanyaya, tarkanyaya, tarkashastra, tarkavidya, vadavidya (hetuvidya - literally, "science of foundations", vādanyāya "rules of reasoning", tarkanyāya -"rules of debate", tarkaśāstra, tarkavidyā - "science of reasoning"). vādavidyā - "the science of reasoning"), etc. In the III-IV centuries. at schoolnyaya its content was expanded by the addition of epistemological concepts, and the new science, in addition to its old names, received the name nyayasastra (nyayasastra - "science of methods" in the broadest sense, methods of knowledge, rational reasoning, etc.).
In the Nyaya Sutras of Gotama-Akshapada, much space is devoted to the study of the problems of obtaining reliable kn ...
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