Open Access

Lorand Bruhacs

• THIS PAPER WILL conduct a critical investigation of the famous argument against atomism first made by the 4th century CE Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu in his idealist treatise Vim. ´satik¯a Vij ˜naptim¯atrat ¯asiddhi (The Twenty Verses of Mind-Only). Although the present exposition will be more conceptual than historical in focus, it will first unfold the Abhidharmic Buddhist precursors of the Mind–Only epistemology. With the necessary background in place, I shall then attempt a rational reconstruction of the substance of Vasubandhu’s argument against atomism, rendering it intelligible to the modern reader by transposing it into contemporary philosophical idiom. Finally, I will employ the analysis of atomism and the external world in the Mind–Only school as a point of departure from which to further probe closely related concerns of Buddhist transcendental philosophy having to do with the nature of empirical knowledge, the power of skeptical argument, and the status of apperception. ...
• Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt das Argument gegen den Atomismus aus den Vim´satik¯a Vij˜naptim¯atrat ¯asiddhi (Zwanzig Versen des Nur-Geistes), einer erkenntnistheoretischen Abhandlung des spätantiken indischen Philosophen Vasubandhu. Unter Atomismus wird hierbei durchgehend die Lehre vom Aufbau der Welt aus kleinsten, nicht weiter zerlegbaren Wirklichkeitsbestandteilen verstanden, wie sie im Altertum in verschiedentlicher Form von griechischen wie auch von indischen Weltanschauungslehren vertreten wurde. ...