Beyond time, not before time: The pratyabhijna Saiva Critique of Dharmakkirti on the reality of beginningless conceptual differentiation

Abstract

The influential apoha (exclusion) theory of concept formation of the seventh- century Buddhist Dharmakirti stands as a philosophically powerful articulation of how language could work in the absence of real universals. In brief, Dharmakirti argues that concepts are constructed through a goal- oriented process that delimits the content of an experience by ignoring whatever does not conform to one's conditioned expectations. There are no real similarities that ground this process. Rather, a concept is merely what's left over once one has glossed over enough of the differences between elements of one's awareness that one can (erroneously but pragmatically) judge the remainder to have the same effects as what one desires.