Buddhist Fundamental Ontology

Abstract

With the aim of bring Vaibhāṣika’s distinctive fundamental ontology into clearer view, here I argue that the Vaibhāṣika describe two general kinds of ontological dependence relations that generate different kinds of ontological structure: (1) ordering relations that generate hierarchical ontological structure and (2) existential dependence relations among the dharmas that co-temporaneously bundle or asynchronously causally relate them. Ordering relations are defined in terms of the distinction between ultimately real and conventionally real entities. Existential dependence relations among dharmas are defined in terms of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda): the view that all phenomena that occur in time are dependent on other phenomena for their occurrence in the present moment. The Vaibhāṣika position is worthy of our philosophical attention because it challenges two commonly held views (1) that fundamentality is to be understood in terms of ontological independence and (2) that causal dependence is distinct from ontological dependence.