India · c. 600–660 (some scholars: mid-6th century)
Dharmakīrti
Buddhist logician whose theory of knowledge dominated Indian debate
He grounded valid inference in two real relations, identity and causation, held that only what has causal power is ultimately real, and defended rebirth and the Buddha’s authority by argument rather than scripture.
Life and thought
Dharmakīrti was born in southern India and taught at Nālandā. He is usually dated c. 600–660, though some scholars place his activity in the mid-6th century. Tibetan sources say he first trained in Brahmanical learning, perhaps Mīmāṃsā, before becoming a Buddhist. The Chinese pilgrim Yijing, in India in the 670s and 680s, names him as a famous logician. His Commentary on Valid Cognition, nominally on Dignāga, is in fact a new system.
Dharmakīrti asked what makes an inference reliable. His answer: a reason guarantees its conclusion only through a real relation—either identity (“this is a tree, because it is an oak”) or causation (“there is fire, because there is smoke”). What is ultimately real is what has causal power, which only momentary particulars have; universals are useful constructions. He brought the same rigour to religious questions, arguing that rebirth follows from the continuity of mind and that the Buddha is a reliable authority because his teaching works. His system set the terms of Indian and Tibetan debate for centuries.
Works
Shaped by
c. 480–540DignāgaFounder of Buddhist logic and epistemologyArgued against
fl. c. 660Kumārila BhaṭṭaThey fought over an authorless Veda, omniscience and word meaning; which of them answered the other depends on their disputed dates.Meanwhile, in other traditions
638–713HuinengSixth Patriarch of Chan, emblem of sudden awakeningOn the record
Dharmakīrti lived c. 600–660.
The 600–660 dating is Frauwallner’s, resting on an argument from silence. Krasser, drawing on links with Bhāviveka and Kumārila, pushes his activity back to the mid-6th century, and Balcerowicz proposes 550–610. The Stanford Encyclopedia counsels caution or even agnosticism; the Chinese pilgrim Yijing (in India 675–685) mentions him, Xuanzang (629–645) does not.
Dharmakīrti answered Mīmāṃsā arguments for an authorless Veda and against omniscience, Kumārila’s among them.
The Stanford Encyclopedia dates Kumārila’s floruit to around 660, late in the 7th century, while Dharmakīrti’s dates are disputed (mid-6th to mid-7th century). The two certainly argued over the same questions—an authorless Veda, omniscience, word meaning—but who answered whom depends on that unresolved chronology, so the atlas now says so.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Kumārila” · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Dharmakīrti”