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

Arguments

Sources

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