Pramana Wiki

Welcome to the Pramāṇa Wiki

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Master catalogue of all wiki pages, organised by type.

Texts

  • pramanasamuccaya — Dignāga’s foundational Compendium of Valid Cognition
  • pramanavartika — Dharmakīrti’s Commentary on Valid Cognition, the primary text in Tibet
  • pramanayuktanidhi — Sakya Paṇḍita’s Treasury of Reasoning on Valid Cognition

Scholars

  • dignaga — founder of the Buddhist logico-epistemological tradition (c. 480–540 CE)
  • dharmakirti — central figure; elaborated Dignāga’s system (c. 600–660 CE)
  • dharmottara — Indian commentator; philosophical school (c. 750–810 CE)
  • cha-ba — established Tibetan “new epistemology” and debate format (1109–1169)
  • sakya-pandita — most important Tibetan pramāṇa scholar; author of the Treasure (1182–1251)
  • gorampa — definitive Sa-gya commentator on the Treasure (1429–1489)
  • sakya-chok-den — brilliant, controversial Sa-gya thinker (1428–1507)
  • ngok-lotsawa — first native Tibetan logician; translator; teacher of Cha-ba (1059–1109)
  • shantarakshita — architect of the Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Madhyamaka synthesis (c. 725–783)
  • gyel-tsap — most authoritative Ge-luk epistemologist (1364–1432)
  • kay-drup — clearest Ge-luk philosophical writer on epistemology (1385–1438)
  • berzin — contemporary scholar-practitioner; Gelug epistemology systematised in English (1944–)

Concepts

  • valid-cognition — pramāṇa (ཚད་མ་); the central epistemological concept
  • perception — pratyakṣa (མངོན་སུམ་); direct nonconceptual cognition
  • inference — anumāna (རྗེས་དཔག་); conceptual cognition through reasoning
  • specifically-characterised — svalakṣaṇa (རང་མཚན་); the real individual
  • generally-characterised — sāmānyalakṣaṇa (སྤྱི་མཚན་); the conceptual construct
  • apoha — exclusion/elimination (སེལ་བ་); Buddhist philosophy of language
  • momentariness — kṣaṇika (སྐད་ཅིག་མ་); the doctrine of impermanence
  • problem-of-universals — sāmānya (སྤྱི་); realism vs. antirealism about general properties
  • scriptural-authority — āgama (ལུང་); the status of scripture as a source of knowledge
  • self-awareness — svasaṃvedana (རང་རིག་); Dignāga’s foundational principle that all cognition is self-cognising
  • mental-activity — sems/citta (སེམས་); “mere clarity and awareness”; the definition of mind
  • mental-hologram — rnam-pa (རྣམ་པ་); cognitive appearance; transparent (Gelug) vs. opaque (non-Gelug)
  • conceptual-cognition — rtog-bcas (རྟོག་བཅས་); cognition through the medium of a conceptual category
  • non-valid-cognition — tshad-min (ཚད་མིན་); the Sa-gya threefold system (non-realising, wrong conceptuality, doubt) and the refutation of the early-Tibetan five-type list
  • subsequent-cognition — bcad-shes (བཅད་ཤེས་); re-cognition of an already-realised object; non-valid because it lacks novelty

Arguments

  • realism-vs-antirealism — the central Sa-gya/Ge-luk debate on universals and ontology
  • can-inference-be-valid — the problem of grounding inference in an antirealist ontology
  • buddha-as-pramana — the positive establishment of the Buddha as a valid person via the forward and reverse sequences of PV Ch. 2
  • proof-of-rebirth — Dharmakīrti’s refutation of Cārvāka materialism (PV 2.34d–119); mind cannot be produced from body
  • refutation-of-vedic-authority — Dharmakīrti’s demolition of the Mīmāṃsā claim of Vedic authorlessness (PV 1.224–end)
  • buddha-as-pramana — establishing the Buddha as valid cognition via compassion, training, and the four truths (PV Ch. 2)
  • proof-of-rebirth — Dharmakīrti’s extended refutation of Cārvāka materialism (PV 2.34d–119)

Sources

  • dreyfus-recognizing-reality — Dreyfus 1997, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations; the most comprehensive English study of the Tibetan reception of Dharmakīrti, organised around the Sa-gya/Ge-luk dispute on universals
  • westerhoff-dignaga-dharmakirti — Westerhoff 2018, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, Ch.4: The School of Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti
  • shantarakshita-madhyamakalankara-intro — Padmakara 2005, Translators’ Introduction to The Adornment of the Middle Way
  • katsura-dignaga-lectures — Katsura 2007, Three Lectures on Dignāga (Lecture 1: Dignāga on What Exists and How to Know It)
  • sonam-introduction-treasury — Pettican 2026, Introduction to Sakya Pandita’s Treasury of Valid Cognition
  • berzin-science-of-mind — Berzin n.d., Science of Mind (9 chapters, studybuddhism.com); Gelug epistemology systematised with Gelug/non-Gelug comparisons
  • gorampa-pramanavartika — Gorampa 1474 / Kilty trans. 2022, Light of Samantabhadra: running Sa-gya commentary on PV Chs. 1–2 (Inference for Oneself; Pramāṇasiddhi, Establishment of Valid Cognition)
  • dzongsar-class-cognition — Dzongsar Institute class slides: Investigation of Cognition (non-valid cognition, subsequent cognition); Universals and Particulars (Sde-bdun rab-gsal material)
  • perdue-buddhist-reasoning-debate — Perdue 2014, The Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate (Snow Lion); pedagogical introduction to the Geluk Collected Topics (bsdus grwa) debate tradition; the position the Treasury Ch. 2 refutes, presented in modern English

Translations

Pramāṇasamuccaya (Dignāga) — 6 chapters

  • chapter-1-perception — Ch.1: མངོན་སུམ་གྱི་ལེའུ། (complete)
  • chapter-2-inference-for-oneself — Ch.2: རང་དོན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པའི་ལེའུ། (in progress)
  • chapter-3-inference-for-others — Ch.3: གཞན་གྱི་དོན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པའི་ལེའུ། (not started)
  • chapter-4-examples — Ch.4: དཔེ་དང་དཔེ་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (not started)
  • chapter-5-apoha — Ch.5: གཞན་སེལ་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (not started)
  • chapter-6-defeat-conditions — Ch.6: ལྟག་ཆོད་བརྟག་པའི་ལེའུ། (not started)

Pramāṇavārttika (Dharmakīrti) — 4 chapters

Pramāṇayuktanidhi (Sakya Paṇḍita) — 11 chapters

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