Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 46

THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
In 1918 Otto Rosenberg (1888–1919) published a study on the problems of Buddhist philosophy, largely based on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, in which he advocated the view that Buddhist philosophy was based on the idea of the plurality of dharmas. 87 Stcherbatsky accepted Rosenberg's view and described Buddhism as a system of Radical Pluralism in his The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word “Dharma” (London, 1923) which contains an analysis of the main doctrines of the Abhidharmakośa. La Vallée Poussin's Nirvāna and, to a lesser degree, Keith's Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon (Oxford, 1923) provoked a spirited attack by Stcherbatsky in his The Conception of Buddhist Nirvāna (Leningrad, 1927). The second part of this book contains a translation of chapter I and chapter XXV of Candrakirti's Prasannapadā. The first part sketches the development of Buddhist philosophy in the schools of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna. Stcherbatsky believed that Buddhism arose as a philosophical system which analysed matter and mind as composed of evanescent elements (dharmas). It is not possible to follow in detail Stcherbatsky's opinions on the later development of Buddhist philosophy. His conclusion (pp. 60-62) summarizes briefly the results at which he arrived. Stcherbatsky had a profound knowledge both of Western and Indian philosophy. In his translations he strove to render the philosophical meaning and not the literal sense. In his interpretation of the epistemological school of Buddhism he tried to show up parallels with Kant's transcendental philosophy. Stcherbatsky's philosophical views regarding the radical pluralism of early Buddhism and the transcendental character of later Buddhist philosophy do not do justice to the essentially religious nature of the Buddhist quest for salvation. Stcherbatsky also carried on a vivid controversy with La Vallée Poussin on the nature of the Absolute of the Madhyamaka. For further details we refer the reader to two articles, recently published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy.88 Even if Stcherbatsky's ideas cannot always carry convic
87 Problemy buddijskoj filosofii, Petrograd, 1918; German translation: Die Probleme der buddhistischen Philosopbie, Heidelberg, 1924. See also A. M. Pjatigorskij, 0. O. Rozenberg i problema jazyka opisanija v buddologii [O. O. Rosenberg and the problem of the language of description in Buddhology), Trudy po znakovym sistemam, s (Tartu, 1971), pp. 423-436.
88 J. W. de Jong, The Problem of the Absolute in the Madhyamaka School, JIP, 2, 1972, pp. 1-6; Emptiness, ibid., pp. 7-15.
100