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Document Details : Title: Being, Substance, Essence and Identity in Classical Buddhist Idealist (Yogācāra) Philosophy Author(s): BALCEROWICZ, Piotr Journal: Journal Asiatique Volume: 313 Issue: 1 Date: 2025 Pages: 129-163 DOI: 10.2143/JA.313.1.3294668 Abstract : The paper discusses a range of philosophical concepts, considered fundamental in Western philosophy, such as being, substance, essence and identity (numerical identity and self-identity) the way they are (in)applicable to Buddhist Idealist (Yogācāra) philosophy. The paper also analyses a possible correspondence of the concepts and analogous terms in Western and Indian philosophies and points to their very problematic overlap. The analysis focuses on works written by or ascribed to Vasubandhu as a Yogācāra teacher, and discusses the various shades of the ideas of anti-substantialism, anti-essentialism, contingent causality and emptiness developed within the framework of idealist, monist model of ontology. Is it possible for Yogācāra to find a secure foundation for knowledge of what ultimately exists? Certainly, any kind of the first-person account, involving epistemic (subject-object) dualism, of the traditional cogito, ergo sum will not do. |
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