Buddhist Logic (In 2 Volumes)

Western interest in Buddhism has grown enormously in recent years, but because of the scarcity of later Buddhist writings most of the work in the field has dealt with the earlier developments in Buddhism. Also, the available books and articles on Buddhism deal almost exclusively with its religious aspects, and pass over the extensive system of logic that forms an important part of its philosophy as a whole.

This book is coverage of the Mahayana Buddhistic logic of the school of Dignaga (and his follower, expositors, and continuers – especially Dharmakirti). It is in fact the most important work on Buddhist logic ever published. A classic of oriental research, it is founded on a thorough study of original Indian and Tibetan compositions by the great Buddhist logicians. The author was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg school that did monumental work in the field of Indology during the first quarter of this century.

The first volume is devoted to a history, of Indian logic with Central Asiatic continuations, and then to a detailed expositions of the Dignaga system in terms of theory of knowledge, the sensible world (including causation, sense perception and ultimate reality); the mentally constructed world (judgment, inference, the syllogism, logical fallacies); negation (law of contradiction, universals, dialectic), and the reality of external world. The Second volume is devoted primarily to a translation of Dharmakirti’s Nyayabindu, with Dharmottara’s commentary. Appendices contain translations from Tibetan logical treatises, Hindu attacks on Buddhist logic, etc.

The author has provided an extremely clear exposition of an important philosophical system that is not well known to the West. The work is all the more, valuable since its is done with an awareness of the history of Western logic and philosophy, well up through Russell and the moderns. Historians of Asian culture, Sanskrit philologists and general philosophers cannot afford to be without it. The general reader with perhaps a basic course in Eastern philosophy will find it highly rewarding.