Terminologie der fruhen philosophischen Scholastik in Indien: Ein Begriffsworterbuch zur altindischen Dialektik, Erkenntnislehre und Methodologie, vol. 1, A-I.

• Author: Clooney, Francis X.

This is the first volume (covering a, a, i) of Oberhammer's ambitious project to identify and explain the key vocabulary of the brahmanical and Buddhist philosophical systems, from the earliest sutra texts to the works of the Buddhist philosopher Dignaga (480-540 C.E.). Since his goal is to make available to contemporary philosophical readers the most important shared vocabulary of the various schools in the fields of logic, epistemology, dialectic, and hermeneutics, and not to survey linguistic usages nor to give a history of ideas, the project, though large, has reasonable and well-defined limits; within its boundaries it has signal value as an Indological and philosophical endeavor.

By the nature of the project, the terms chosen for analysis are technical but not esoteric. They range from the expected (e.g., anumana [Schlussfolgerung; inference], akrti [typologische Gestalt; the universal form], and avayava [Beweisglied; a component part, member of a syllogism]) to rather more specialized but still interesting terms (e.g., agamakam vacanam [unverstandliche Rede; a disputant's statement that is intelligible neither in reality nor in the context of the debate], apavarga [Einschrankung, Aussetzen der Gultigkeit einer Regel; the restriction or suspension in specific cases of a generally applicable rule], and abhyanujna [Zustimmung; a qualified acceptance and deflection of an opponent's point]). Entries range in length from a few lines (abhyanujna) to seventeen full pages (anumana); they are replete with references to selected key texts (Oberhammer relies on about one hundred brahmanical and Buddhist texts, ranging from srautasutras to early bhasyas and varttikas, to the Carakasamhita, Nyayamanjari and Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya and Sravakabhumi); each concept is amply cross-referenced with other entries (most of which, though, will appear only in the planned future volumes). The analyses depend almost entirely on primary, mostly Sanskrit texts, though some attention is given to Tibetan sources; due to the limits of the...