142285 UE Philosophy of Language - Jinendrabuddhi's Pramanasamuccaya chapter V (2020W)

Dignāga's Pramāṇasamuccaya (ca. sixth century CE) is our earliest
complete witness to the school of systematic philosophical analysis
known as the logico-epistemological tradition of Buddhism. There are,
however, serious obstacles to understanding this text. First, the
Pramāṇasamuccaya is a “Summary of pramāṇa”, and as such states
Dignāga’s ideas, but does not explain them in great detail. Second,
the text survives only in two Tibetan translations that are of very
low quality and therefore very limited usefulness.

Jinendrabuddhi's Viśālāmalavatī Pramāṇasamuccayaṭīkā (perhaps eighth
or ninth century CE) is the only preserved word-by-word commentary in
Sanskrit on Dignāga’s important text. It largely mitigates the two
obstacles to understanding Dignāga’s “Summary”: it provides much of
the original Sanskrit in its quotes from, and paraphrases of, the root
text; and it explains the background of many of Dignāga’s ideas.
This, along with Jinendrabuddhi’s frequent quotes from otherwise
unavailable works, makes his commentary an immensely rich source for
understanding the history of the Buddhist epistemological tradition.

The primary goal of this class is to edit and translate the Sanskrit
text of the fifth chapter of Jinendrabuddhi's commentary. This
chapter deals with verbal cognition and its objects, Dignāga’s famous
/apoha/ theory. Participants will become acquainted with
philological-historical methods and editorial techniques, and are
encouraged to participate in discussions led by the main editors.

In the winter term 2020, we aim to finish reading Dignāga’s refutation
of competing views on what the object of verbal cognition is (up to
Pramāṇasamuccaya 5, v. 11).