A systematic overview of modern metaphysics, A Survey of Metaphysics covers all of the most important topics in the field. It adopts the fairly traditional conception of metaphysics as a subject that deals with the deepest questions that can be raised concerning the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. The book is divided into six main sections that address the following themes: identity and change, necessity and essence, causation, agency and events, space and time, and universals and particulars. It (...) focuses on contemporary views and issues throughout, rather than on the history of metaphysics. (shrink)

I. RATNAKIRTI. HIS PHILOSOPHICAL CONGENERS AND ADVERSARIES Ratnakirti flourished early in the 11th century A.D. at the University of Vi kramasila, a member of the Yogacara-Vijnanavada school oflate Buddhist philosophy. Thakur characterizes Ratnakirti's writing as "more concise and logical though not so poetical" 1 as that of his guru, Jfianasrimitra, two of 2 whose dicta are focal points of the present work. From a translogical or absolute point of view, Ratnakirti endorses a form of 3 solipsistic idealism. The Sarhtdndntaradu$alJa, his (...) proof of solipsism written from the standpoint ofthe highest truth, concludes that an exter nal nonmental continuum is impossible. In ultimate reality the cognizing sub ject, its act of awareness, and the cognized object coalesce - all are fabrications superposed on what is really an indivisible evanescent now. 4 As Ratnakirti's predecessors have put it: There is neither an 'I' nor a 'he' nor a 'you' nor even an 'it'; neither the thing, nor the not-thing; neither a law nor a system; neither the terms nor the relations. But there are only the cognitive events of colourless sensations which have forms but no names. They are caught for a moment in a stream and then rush to naught. Even the stream is a fiction. That sensum of the moment, the purest particular, that advaya, the indivisible unit of cognition, that is the sole reality, the rest are all fictions, stirred up by time-honoured 5 convention of language which is itself a grand fiction. (shrink)

The Ks&dotbelow;an&dotbelow;abhan˙gasiddhi-Anvayatmika is an authoritative work on Buddhist logic and ontology written in the eleventh century by Ratnakirti who belonged to the University of Vikramasila in Bengal. This work continues the Buddhist Praman&dotbelow;a tradition founded by Dignaga and elaborated by Dharmakirti . The KSA deals with many of the central topics of Indian philosophical discourse in the course of defending the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness against the rival Naiy¯yikas. The highlight is its penetrating analysis of the nature of existence and (...) causality. Ratnakirti had detailed knowledge of the earlier writers belonging to both his and his opponents' traditions. As a work written at a pivotal time in the history of Indian philosophy, the KSA reflects the culmination of a style of debate, and shows all facets of classical scholarship on logic. ;This dissertation comprises three major sections. The first section is a brief review of the author and the work. The second section summarizes the notion of existence and the causal theory. It compares the Ks&dotbelow;an&dotbelow;abhan˙gavadins' positions as represented by Ratnakirti to the Naiyayikas' views. The third section consists of the text and a translation with critical study. This section improves upon the previous editions of H. Sarti and A. Thakur by incorporating material from two manuscripts and quotations from the original sources of Ratnakirti's predecessors and their opponents. Extensive discussion is given to each argument in the notes together with identifying its background and explicating certain key philosophical terms. (shrink)