A study on the Buddhist theory of perception based on DharmakTrti's Pramanavarttika, chapter III: A critical edition, translation and study of Pramanavarttika III 1-122 and 281-300

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The planned study of the Pramānavārttika (PV) of Dharmakīrti, will be part of an international endeavor towards the comprehensive understanding of Buddhist philosophy. Dharmakīrti’s PV represents one of the greatest achievements in South Asian intellectual history; it strongly influenced Indian philosophy as long as Buddhism was alive on the subcontinent and continues to be studied in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition until today. Although the importance of the PV is widely recognized, it remains hitherto largely untranslated and has only been studied fragmentarily. Various parts of the PV are now in the process of being translated by colleagues in Vienna, Lausanne, Montreal and Albuquerque. The goal of the project is to edit and translate a substantial part of PV III as part of a consorted effort by three teams of Dharmakīrti specialists: E. Franco and S. Moriyama at the University of Leipzig (vv. 1-122, 281-300), J. Taber and R. Hayes at the University of New Mexico (vv. 123-248) and B. Kellner and assistants at the University of Vienna (vv. 249-280, 301-539).Dharmakīrti’s theory of perception in PV III centers on the following issues: 1) the number of means of knowledge; 2) the definition of means of knowledge; 3) the etymology and justification of the use of the term pratyaksa; 4) the compatibility between the Abhidharmic theory of perception and the definition “free of conceptualization”; 5) the object of perception; 6) the classification of perception; 7) pseudo-perception; 8) the result of means of knowledge; 9) self-awareness as the result of the means of knowledge.