Indian Logic Forum

tantidharo · Last edited by tantidharo on Wed Jun 28, 2006 2:35 pm; edited 3 times in total

Can B ontologies surmount substance-dualism?

1. The prakrti of the Samkhya and PataГ±jali Yoga is metaphorically portrayed somewhat varyingly as (i) the ultimate underlying 'material' (pradhДЃna) principle and (ii) the fundamental substrate or 'attribute-bearer' (dharmin) both of as well as and (iii) the phenomenological world of atomic nature.

2. Rhetorically put, the girl bears life, a condition that some have found too ominous. Thus was she made to bear even more and endure a millennia-long attempt to controvert and 'categorically' malign her fortunate figure вЂ“ but to no avail, as traditional misogyny has failed in all respects to interdict the "pre-immensity" of prakrti's sheer buoyancy and true winning spirit.

3. As natural heir to the atheist-materialist Charvaka, the Pali Text cult would better be studied as collapsed together with the whole B lot in proximity to atomist Vaisesika and Nyaya arrangements, in order to expedite reaching that staggering denouement where Theravadic dogma is finally exposed as even more sclerotic than the predicates ofAristotle.

4. In resorting to a fundamental atomistic underlay as 'element of extension' (Pali, pathavi), and without which objects could not exist, we are not yet willing to concede the point that the Abhidhamma-based analysis of matter may represent any non-substance-ontology. Though granted especially where pathavi (earth) is encoded to signify a 'kind of force,' this perspective finds accord with the Samkhya-Yoga as shared ontological archetype; but yet if viewed as insensate, or inanimate atoms, well, the pattern rather matches that ontologic standard of a 'mind-body dualism,' imperative to which we list: separation, disunity, impasse and confoundment.

5. As if 'scribing vistas cross the ocean with his wand,' Isvarakrsna in his Samkhya-karika (5th cen. CE) handles the perennial pickle with elegance:

Nothing is more compassionate or responsive than prakrti 'as the underlying process of creation herself.' As soon as she reflects, 'I am fully laid bare,' she no longer appears before the eyes of the entitled.

6. And though while neither denying nor surmounting the dilemma, this aesthetically reduces the bulk to a slenderer rhetorical quasi-dualism вЂ“ i.e. as based, if anything, on a qualified sense of philosophical decorum вЂ“ thence lithely applied in unfastening ourselves from the otherwise preposterous conundrum of sex вЂ“ that ultimate figurative underlay-of-being. Yet in European thought, as certainly spills from the Peripatetics to our present-day Professor Peter Strawson, say, letting such a metaphor run so uncensored would simply be adjudged as an act of impropriety; and there they remain forever waffling on the mind-body problem... But have the Abhidhammists contributed more? Have the subtle SunyavДЃdis advanced any further? Are not the Vasubandha Brothers simply hawking screensavers?

7. Therefore the question nearly asks itself. Where are the spiritual legatees to the sensitive wand of Isvarakrsna? вЂ“ For

Indeed, nothing is encumbered, neither freed nor resettled.... It is the process of creation alone that is moored, unbuttoned and re-launched to the open seas...

in the fluttering array of her tantalizing winds.

References

Gradinarov, Plamen 2006. Online posts, Buddha Saw the Atoms, Early Buddhist Atomism http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?s=259e14233504c9cd2cf49791ac2fa177&showtopic=24966

Isvarakrsna. Samkhya Karika http://radicalacademy.com/adiphileasternessay17.htm

Jacobsen, Knut A. 2002. Prakrti in Samkhya Yoga https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no25476.htm

Narada, Maha Thera 1990. Ed. and trans. from Pali with Introduction and Notes, Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Anuruddhacariya http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/abhisgho/abhis06.htm

Strawson, Sir Peter F. 2001. Philosophy and Commitment: Left, Right and Center, a presentation by at the University of Hawaii 10/18/01 & 10/20/01 http://www.infinityfoundation.com/strawsonscript.htm

Plamen · Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

By B ontologies you understand Buddhist ontology, or the dharma-dharmi ontology listed in point b?

Although atoms are the primary bricks of the mahabhutas, Buddhism and Samkhya-Yoga are close to each other in representing them as collisional infinitesimals (sanghata-paramanu) of secondary qualities or their subtle-energy representations.

tantidharo · Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 9:25 am Post subject:

tantidharo · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:55 pm Post subject: