Apoha

by Siderits, Mark; Tillemans, Tom; Chakrabarti, Arindam

• ISBN13: 9780231153614
• ISBN10: 0231153619
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-02
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

When we understand that something is a pot, is it because of one property that all pots share? This seems unlikely, but without this common essence, it is difficult to see how we could teach someone to use the word "pot" or to see something as a pot. The Buddhist apoha theory tries to resolve this dilemma, first, by rejecting properties such as "potness" and, then, by claiming that the element uniting all pots is their very difference from all non-pots. In other words, when we seek out a pot, we select an object that is not a non-pot, and we repeat this practice with all other items and expressions. Writing from the vantage points of history, philosophy, and cognitive science, the contributors to this volume clarify the nominalist apoha theory and explore the relationship between apoha and the scientific study of human cognition. They engage throughout in a lively debate over the theory's legitimacy. Classical Indian philosophers challenged the apoha theory's legitimacy, believing instead in the existence of enduring essences. Seeking to settle this controversy, essays explore whether apoha offers new and workable solutions to problems in the scientific study of human cognition. They show that the work of generations of Indian philosophers can add much toward the resolution of persistent conundrums in analytic philosophy and cognitive science.

Author Biography

Mark siderits is professor of philosophy at Seoul National University and the author of Indian philosophy of Language, Personal Identity and Buddhist philosophy, and Buddhism as philosophy. Tom Tillemans is professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His book include Scripture, Logic Language: Essays on Dharmakirti and His Tibetan Successors. Arindam Chakrabarti is professor of philosophy at the University Hawai'i. He is the author of Denying Existence. The Logic, Epistemology, and Pragmatics of Negative Existentials and Fictional Discourse.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
How to Talk About Ineffable Things: Dignaga and Dharmakirti on Apoha	p. 50
Dignaga's Apoha Theory: Its Presuppositions and Main Theoretical Implications	p. 64
Key Features of Dharmakirti's Apoha Theory	p. 84
Dharmakirti's Discussion of Circularity	p. 109
Apoha Theory as an Approach to Understanding Human Cognition	p. 125
The Apoha Theory as Referred to in the Nyayamañjari	p. 134
Constructing the Content of Awareness Events	p. 149
The Apoha Theory of Meaning: A Critical Account	p. 170
Apoha as a Naturalized Account of Concept Formation	p. 207
Apoha, Feature-Placing, and Sensory Content	p. 228
Funes and Categorization in an Abstraction-Free World	p. 247
Apoha Semantics: Some Simpleminded Questions and Doubts	p. 258
Classical Semantics and Apoha Semantics	p. 273
Srughna by Dusk	p. 283
Bibliography	p. 305
List of Contributors	p. 321
Index	p. 325
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