A Comparative Study of Theory of Perception in Indian Buddhist Epistemology and Analytical Philosophy

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On the basis of text-analysis of Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika III 448-459 and Ratnakirit's Citradvaitaprakasavada, the present study has clarified a way for understanding the complex among external objects, mental images, and self-awareness in the Buddhist theory of perception, and the role of conceptual constructions (vikalpa/kalpana) or perceptual judgments (adhyavasaya) discussed in the controversy between the views holding cognition with false mental images (alikakaravada) and cognition with true mental images (satyakaravvada). Although the latter problem might be connected with W. Sellars's argument known as "Myth of Given," which questions whether mental images are propositional or not, it should not be overlooked that Indian epistemology that presupposes a certain rationality connected with its own soteriology does not regard the mental images, unlike sense data, as the foundation of empirical knowledge.