Event Detail

Sat Nov 5, 2016
TBA
9–11 AM
Conference
Conceptuality and Nonconceptuality in Buddhist Thought

This conference will explore the different ways that Buddhist scholastic traditions (Sarvāstivāda, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Pramāṇavāda) engaged with the issue of “conceptuality” and “non-conceptuality” in their analyses of mind, perception, thinking, and insight. In exploring this topic, participants are invited to focus on one or more key terms or notions, such as saṃjñā, manovijñāna, manas, vitarka/vicāra, manojalpa, prajñapti, and pratyakṣa, as well as pairs like vikalpa versus nirvikalpa (or avikalpaka), svalakṣaṇa versus sāmānyalakṣaṇa, dravya-svalakṣaṇa versus āyatana-svalakṣaṇa, and so on. Finally, participants are encouraged to address the relevance of these notions in the light of contemporary philosophical discussions of conceptual and non-conceptual perception and experience.

Panel 2 — 9 to noon: Yogācāra Chair: Alexander von Rospatt (UC Berkeley)

Nobuyoshi Yamabe (Waseda University): “The Position of Conceptualization in the Context of the Yogācāra Bīja Theory”

Jowita Kramer (Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich): “Conceptuality in Yogācāra Thought”

Roy Tzohar (Tel Aviv University): “Enjoy the Silence: The Relation between Non-conceptual Awareness and Inexpressibility According to Some Yogācāra Sources”

Panel 3 — 2 to 4: Sūtra and Abhidharma Chair: Collett Cox (University of Washington)

Qian Lin (UC Berkeley): “The Mahānidāna-sūtra and Conceptual Thinking in Early Buddhism”

Ching Keng (National Chengchi University, Taiwan): “Does the Cognition of Blueness-cum-Yellowness Involve Vikalpa?”

Panel 4 — 4:30 to 6:30: The Ultimate and the Epistemic Role of Experience Chair: Sara L. McClintock (Emory University)

Jonardon Ganeri (New York University): “Mindedness, Saññā, and the Epistemic Role of Experience”

Jay Garfield (Smith College): “Thinking Beyond Thought: Tsongkhapa and Mipham on the Conceptualized Ultimate”