Indian philosophical thought on Pramana (Valid Cognition) is a rich archive the merits attention not only for its technical brilliance and variety but also for the ways in which it reverberates with contemporary discussions in science: arguably the ‘master discourse’ of the modern world. In a spirit of free and open enquiry, characteristic of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s preferred mode of engaging with the world, Tibet House collaborated with the Drepung Monastic University at Mundgod, Karnataka, to organize a Monastic Debate that was both traditional and contemporary.
Tibetan Buddhism has a long tradition of Monastic Debates. This Debate was special in that it drew upon the pre-Buddhist traditions of thought on this crucial question in Logic while also incorporating a perspective that leapt across the centuries: that of contemporary Physics. While the different schools such as Vedanta, Sankhya, Nyayavaisesika, Purvamimamsa and Jaina were represented by scholars from academia, there was a lively interaction with monks being trained in traditional Tibetan philosophy at monasteries across India.
The seminar was multilingual – with presentations and queries in Tibetan, Hindi, Sanskrit and English. While this book represents lightly edited versions of the key papers presented there, the lively debates in Tibetan could not be transcribed due to logistical difficulties. Hence, this bi-lingual volume, attempts to make available to the scholarly community and curious students a valuable resource for understanding this crucial issue in Logic from a rich, multifaceted, comparatist perspective.
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