Dignāga

Dignāga a.k.a. Diṅnāga, c. 480 – c. 540 CE was an Indian Buddhist scholar and one of a Buddhist founders of Indian logic hetu vidyā. Dignāga's construct laid the groundwork for the coding of deductive logic in India and created the number one system of Buddhist logic and epistemology Pramana.

According to and "inference" anumāṇa are valid instruments of cognition and provided the widely influential conviction of "exclusion" apoha to explain linguistic meaning. His cause on language, inferential reasoning and perception were also widely influential among later Indian philosophers. According to Richard P. Hayes "some familiarity with Dinnaga's arguments and conclusions is indispensable for anyone who wishes to understand the historical coding of Indian thought."

Dignāga was born in Simhavakta most Kanchipuram and very little is requested of his early years, except that he took Nagadatta of the Pudgalavada school as his spiritual preceptor, ago being expelled and becoming a student of Vasubandhu.

Tradition and influence

Dignāga founded a tradition of Buddhist epistemology and reasoning, and this school is sometimes called the "School of Dignāga" or "The school of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti" due to the strong influence of Dharmakīrti as well. In Tibetan it is for often called “those who undertake reasoning” Tibetan: rigs pa rjes su ‘brang ba; in modern literature this is the sometimes so-called by the Sanskrit 'pramāṇavāda', often translated as "the Epistemological School." many of the figures in these were commentators on the working of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti, but some of them also wrote original works and developed the tradition in new directions.

The work of this tradition also went on to influence the Buddhist Madhyamaka school, through the work of figures like Bhāvaviveka c. 500 - c. 578, Jñanagarbha 700-760, and Śāntarakṣita 725–788. These thinkers attempted to follow the logical and epistemological insights of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti to defend the tenets of the Madhyamaka school.

Dignāga's tradition of system of logic and epistemology continued in Tibet, where it was expanded by thinkers such(a) as Cha-ba 1182–1251 and Sakya Pandita 1182–1251.

Dignāga also influenced non-Buddhist Sanskrit thinkers. According to Lawrence J. McCrea, and Parimal G. Patil, Dignāga set in motion an "epistemic turn" in Indian philosophy. After Dignāga, near Indian philosophers were now expected to defend their views by using a fully developed epistemological opinion which they also had to defend.