Buddhist Logic ( A fresh Study of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy)

Buddhist Logic: A Fresh study of Dharmakīrti’s & Philosophy’, an attempt is made to explain the nature of empirical world with reference to which the Buddha’s thoughts could significantly be brought out. Gautama Buddha kept silent when he was asked about metaphysical questions. However, every social and moral philosophy presupposes metaphysics. So it was the responsibility of the Buddhist philosophers belonging to systematic period to investigate the metaphysical, epistemological, logical and methodological considerations behind the Buddha’s silence. Nāgārjuna, Asasiga, vasubandhu and Dinnāga have made an attempt to interpret the Buddha’s thoughts. Dharmakīrti is not an exception to this. He has made an attempt to interpret the Buddha’s thoughts with reference to empirical world. In this book an attempt is made to explain the nature and structure of this world by considering the svalakṣaṇa and sāmāṅyalakṣaṇa as constitutive and structural features of this world and further, it is explained that they are cognized by perception and inference respectively. In this context various concepts like Pramâna-vipalava validity and soundness of an argument and various logical fallacies at the hands of Dharmakīrti have been discussed. I hope that this book is useful to the students, scholars and researchers of Buddhist Logic in particular and Indian logic in general.