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[Kellner]

Subject: non-existence, negative cognition in Indian philosophy

I received an answer to my posting on seeking material dealing
with grammatical explanations of negation in Sanskrit (backgound
was epistemological conceptions of cognition of non-existence). 

round

As my host-machine does not accept exclamation marks in
e-mail-addresses, and as this answer contained one (something
like pslvax!....), I have to bother the list (sorry...):

Of course, I am grateful for any hints on any account of negative cognition, 
in Indian philosophy, European philosophy, or any other source, since
I believe that the most inspiring hints always come from directions
you would never investigate in the first place. 

Otherwise, my specific focus is on the Buddhist prama at n@ak-
[
side. This necessarily entails work on other schools, too (my 
M.A.Thesis was a translation of Tattvasam at graha 1647-90,
dealing with Kuma at rila's conception of _abha at va_ as a
distinct means of cognition). 

Interestingly enough, the answer to my posting almost
naturally rephrased _non-existent_ with something like
_that which is beyond experience_ (precise reference lost).
The problem is: What do you consider as _experience_? If
the Naiya at yika's _savikalpakapratyaks at a_ counts as
_experience_, then you have at least one school that explains
non-existence as accessible to experience (to be precise:
non-existence as exemplified in _iha ghat at o na at sti_). 

There are certain overtly soteriological approaches to
non-existence, discourses on the _inexpressible_, the
_ultimately inaccessible_ etc. One of the questions I constantly
have in the back of my mind is, whether those approaches
are something completely different from logical or epistemological
accounts, or whether they are linked up, and if so, in what way...

I realize that this is a vey vague question, indeed, but, as I said,
it is _on the back of my mind_, waiting for textual evidence to be
drawn into one direction or another.

Birgit Kellner
Institute for Indian Philosophy
University of Hiroshima