What is unreal?

The term tuccha means in Classical Sanksrit “worthless”, “insignificant”. In Vedānta, however, it gets a more specific technical meaning, to denote the absolute unreality of chimeral entities, such as the khapuṣpa (flower in the air), which will not and cannot Continue reading What is unreal?

Can one establish the existence of an omniscient?

…or can one just say that his existence cannot be denied? During his commentary on Maṇḍana Miśra’s Vidhiviveka (henceforth VV), 1.14–15, Vācaspati Miśra focuses on the possibility of the existence of omniscients. Why so? Because the VV is a Mīmāṃsaka Continue reading Can one establish the existence of an omniscient?

Book note: Vincent Eltschinger’s “Penser l’autorité des Écritures”

The starting point of every discussion on this book is that it is an amazing achievement: more than 160 pp. of translation of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Svavṛtti which will enhance further studies on Buddhist and non-Buddhist epistemology and, even more Continue reading Book note: Vincent Eltschinger’s “Penser l’autorité des Écritures”

On the epistemology of the extra-ordinary. Or: Do we need to waste our time proving that unicorns do not exist?

Do we need to prove that unicorns, tooth fairies, hobbits and so on do not exist? The question is not just funny, insofar as an upholder of the existence of ghosts and the like could easily claim that —strictly speaking— Continue reading On the epistemology of the extra-ordinary. Or: Do we need to waste our time proving that unicorns do not exist?