THE POLEMICS BETWEEN THE BUDDHISTS AND THE VAISHESHIKAS ON THE SELF IN “PUDGALAVINISHCHAYA” OF VASUBANDHU

L I Titlin

doi:10.22363/2313-2302-2019-23-1-46-55

Abstract

The article examines the controversy between the “orthodox” Indian philosophical school Vaiśeṣika and one of the greatest Buddhist philosophers - Vasubandhu (IV-V AD.) on the existence of subject (“ātman”) as a reality. The discussion is investigated on the example of the text “Pudgalaviniścaya” (hereinafter PV). PV of Vasubandhu - literally “Study on the Self”, or “pudgala” - is traditionally considered the 9th chapter of “Abhidharmakośabhaṣya” of the same author and is one of the most important polemical treatises on the self, or ātman, in Buddhist philosophy. Among the issues discussed are the famous “epistemological argument”, the ability of recall and perception, how a difference between moments of consciousness is possible, whether the substrate for consciousness is necessary. One of the strategies of Vasubandhu is that he tries to find internal contradictions in the arguments of opponents. We can say that the main argument of Vasubandhu is aimed at justifying the mechanism of the cause-and-effect occurrence of all phenomena (pratītya-samutpāda). If the Vaiśeṣikas proceed from their logic about the need for a substance for qualities, then Vasubandhu tries to persuade them to his side and offer a fundamentally new explanatory model, according to which there are only sequence-like moments-phenomena (dharmas) that flow from each other according to the law of cause and effect.

Highlights

Unlike traditional Western models of subject, which, as a rule, imply the existence of “Self”, Buddhism (at least 2 thousand years before the first criticism of subject in the West) has put forward its original concept of “non-Self” (anātmavāda)
Unlike traditional Western models of subject, which, as a rule, imply the existence of “Self”, Buddhism has put forward its original concept of “non-Self”
Vs. object that if one moment of consciousness would have arisen from another one within the chain of causal dependence, rather than directly from ātman, in that case, either all the time the same moments of consciousness would appear, or different ones, but in the same predetermined sequence as e.g., the sprout appears from the seed, and the leaves from the sprout etc

Summary

Introduction

Unlike traditional Western models of subject, which, as a rule, imply the existence of “Self”, Buddhism (at least 2 thousand years before the first criticism of subject in the West) has put forward its original concept of “non-Self” (anātmavāda). Vasubandhu says that, from the Buddhist point of view, there is a certain state of mind (bhavana-saṃskāra, mental imprint), which appears due to habit, repetition, etc., aimed at the recalled object and causally associated with it, preceding the act of remembering, which is not destroyed due to absent-mindedness, grief, etc.

Results

Conclusion