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Logical and Scientific Method in Early Buddhist Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

G. S. P. Misra
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Extract

By rejecting animism and ritualism and emphasizing a rational outlook which treats reality as a causally and functionally determined system of plural synergies (saṁskāras), the emergence of Buddhism marks an important event in the history of Indian thought. The most distinctive feature of Buddhist ethics is its freedom from theism, which leaves room for rationalism and rules out submission to some superhuman power controlling the world-process. Prior to the advent of Buddhism even the Upaniṣads were not completely free from theistic influence in their speculations. It is proposed here to point to the Buddhist contribution to the growth of scientific outlook and methodology in India.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 100 , Issue 1 , January 1968 , pp. 54 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1968

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References

1 In the Cūḷahatthipadopamasutta of the Majjhima Nikāya Buddha compares the way-farer with a clever elephant-tracker who for himself treads the path and knows the truth: The middle length sayings (Tr. of the Majjhima Nikāya, P.T.S. Edition), I, 47: “Dhamma is well-taught by Lord…it is a come-and-see thing…to be understood individually by the wise”.

2 This attitude is well exemplified in regard to what have been termed “avyākata” questions.

3 Mahāvagga (Nālandā Edition, Nālandā-Devanāgarī-Pāli series, Pāli Publication Board, Bihar Government; henceforth abbreviated as Nāl. Ed.), 11.

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7 Aṅguttara Nikāya (Nāl. Ed.), I, 176.

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