Misplaced Pages

#380619

102-544: Their name means literally "the conclusions of the sutras " where sūtra is lengthened into the vṛddhi derivative sautra, and combined with the word anta, meaning end or conclusion, with a final nominal marker ika (compare with the term vedānta ), meaning their philosophy is derived from the sūtras. As stated by the commentator Yasomitra, they hold the sutras , but not the Abhidharma commentaries ( sastras ), as authoritative. The views of this group first appear in

204-514: A sutta or sutra constitutes a segment of the canonical literature. These early Buddhist sutras, unlike Hindu texts, are not aphoristic; rather, they tend to be quite lengthy. The Buddhist term sutta or sutra likely derives from Sanskrit sūkta ( su + ukta ), meaning "well spoken," reflecting the belief that "all that was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well-spoken". They embody the essence of sermons conveying "well-spoken" wisdom, akin to

306-608: A Jain text that includes monastic rules, as well as biographies of the Jain Tirthankaras . Many sutras discuss all aspects of ascetic and lay life in Jainism. Various ancient sutras particularly from the early 1st millennium CE, for example, recommend devotional bhakti as an essential Jain practice. The surviving scriptures of Jaina tradition, such as the Acaranga Sutra ( Agamas ), exist in sutra format, as

408-438: A book is made up of two covers and the pages between them. Each of these components is itself constituted of smaller parts, like molecules , atoms , and elementary particles . Mereology studies the relation between parts and wholes. One position in mereology says that every collection of entities forms a whole. According to another view, this is only the case for collections that fulfill certain requirements, for instance, that

510-433: A bundle that includes the properties yellow, sour, and round. According to traditional bundle theory, the bundled properties are universals, meaning that the same property may belong to several different bundles. According to trope bundle theory, properties are particular entities that belong to a single bundle. Some ontologies focus not on distinct objects but on interrelatedness. According to relationalism, all of reality

612-473: A central tenet of this school was that all sutra is explicit meaning ( nitartha ), hence their name. The Sarvāstivādins sometimes referred to them as the Dārṣṭāntika school, meaning "those who utilize the method of examples". This latter name may have been a pejorative label. It is also possible that the name 'Dārṣṭāntika' identifies a predecessor tradition, or another related, but distinct, doctrinal position;

714-574: A comprehensive inventory of reality in which every entity belongs to exactly one category. Some philosophers, like Aristotle , say that entities belonging to different categories exist in distinct ways. Others, like John Duns Scotus , insist that there are no differences in the mode of being, meaning that everything exists in the same way . A related dispute is whether some entities have a higher degree of being than others, an idea already found in Plato 's work. The more common view in contemporary philosophy

816-504: A different sense, for example, as abstract or fictional objects. Scientific realists say that the scientific description of the world is an accurate representation of reality. It is of particular relevance in regard to things that cannot be directly observed by humans but are assumed to exist by scientific theories, like electrons, forces, and laws of nature. Scientific anti-realism says that scientific theories are not descriptions of reality but instruments to predict observations and

918-583: A distilled collection of syllables and words, any form or manual of "aphorism, rule, direction" hanging together like threads with which the teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. A sūtra is any short rule, states Moriz Winternitz, in Indian literature; it is "a theorem condensed in few words". A collection of sūtras becomes a text, and this is also called sūtra (often capitalized in Western literature). A sūtra

1020-679: A distinct type of literary composition, a compilation of short aphoristic statements. Each sutra is any short rule, like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. The oldest sutras of Hinduism are found in the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas . Every school of Hindu philosophy , Vedic guides for rites of passage, various fields of arts, law, and social ethics developed respective sutras, which help teach and transmit ideas from one generation to

1122-412: A major subfield of applied ontology, studies social kinds, like money , gender , society , and language . It aims to determine the nature and essential features of these concepts while also examining their mode of existence. According to a common view, social kinds are useful constructions to describe the complexities of social life. This means that they are not pure fictions but, at the same time, lack

SECTION 10

#1732780113381

1224-542: A person thinks about the Loch Ness Monster then the Loch Ness Monster is the intentional object of this thought . People can think about existing and non-existing objects. This makes it difficult to assess the ontological status of intentional objects . Ontological dependence is a relation between entities. An entity depends ontologically on another entity if the first entity cannot exist without

1326-448: A preliminary discipline that provides a complete inventory of reality while metaphysics examines the features and structure of the entities in this inventory. Another conception says that metaphysics is about real being while ontology examines possible being or the concept of being. It is not universally accepted that there is a clear boundary between metaphysics and ontology. Some philosophers use both terms as synonyms. The etymology of

1428-463: A property while being east of is a relation, as in " Kathmandu is a city" and "Kathmandu is east of New Delhi ". Relations are often divided into internal and external relations . Internal relations depend only on the properties of the objects they connect, like the relation of resemblance . External relations express characteristics that go beyond what the connected objects are like, such as spatial relations. Substances play an important role in

1530-524: A real part of objects. Relational ontologies are common in certain forms of nominalism that reject the existence of universal properties. Hierarchical ontologies state that the world is organized into levels. Entities on all levels are real but low-level entities are more fundamental than high-level entities. This means that they can exist without high-level entities while high-level entities cannot exist without low-level entities. One hierarchical ontology says that elementary particles are more fundamental than

1632-402: A slightly different sense, monism contrasts with pluralism as a view not about the number of basic types but the number of entities. In this sense, monism is the controversial position that only a single all-encompassing entity exists in all of reality. Pluralism is more commonly accepted and says that several distinct entities exist. The historically influential substance-attribute ontology

1734-410: A specific ontological theory within this discipline. It can also mean an inventory or a conceptual scheme of a particular domain, such as the ontology of genes . In this context, an inventory is a comprehensive list of elements. A conceptual scheme is a framework of the key concepts and their relationships. Ontology is closely related to metaphysics but the exact relation of these two disciplines

1836-468: A theory of reality but as a game governed by rules of string manipulation. Modal realism is the theory that in addition to the actual world, there are countless possible worlds as real and concrete as the actual world. The primary difference is that the actual world is inhabited by us while other possible worlds are inhabited by our counterparts . Modal anti-realists reject this view and argue that possible worlds do not have concrete reality but exist in

1938-502: A tree, a car, and a planet. They have causal powers and can affect each other, like when a car hits a tree and both are deformed in the process. Abstract objects, by contrast, are outside space and time, such as the number 7 and the set of integers . They lack causal powers and do not undergo changes. The existence and nature of abstract objects remain subjects of philosophical debate. Concrete objects encountered in everyday life are complex entities composed of various parts. For example,

2040-449: A tree, and abstract objects existing outside space and time, like the number 7. Systems of categories aim to provide a comprehensive inventory of reality, employing categories such as substance , property , relation , state of affairs , and event . Ontologists disagree about which entities exist on the most basic level. Platonic realism asserts that universals have objective existence. Conceptualism says that universals only exist in

2142-485: A variety of underlying phenomena (a view similar to that held by the modern Theravadin abhidhamma); the Sautrāntika believed that experience could not be differentiated in this manner. Sautrantika doctrines expounded by elder Śrīlāta and critiqued in turn by Samghabhadra's Nyayanusara include: According to Vasubandhu , the Sautrāntika also held the view that there may be many Buddhas simultaneously, otherwise known as

SECTION 20

#1732780113381

2244-509: A view referred to as moral nihilism . Monocategorical theories say that there is only one fundamental category, meaning that every single entity belongs to the same universal class. For example, some forms of nominalism state that only concrete particulars exist while some forms of bundle theory state that only properties exist. Polycategorical theories, by contrast, hold that there is more than one basic category, meaning that entities are divided into two or more fundamental classes. They take

2346-558: Is a comprehensive framework for the standardized representation of gene-related information across species and databases. Formal ontology is the study of objects in general while focusing on their abstract structures and features. It divides objects into different categories based on the forms they exemplify. Formal ontologists often rely on the tools of formal logic to express their findings in an abstract and general manner. Formal ontology contrasts with material ontology, which distinguishes between different areas of objects and examines

2448-404: Is a polycategorical theory. It says that reality is at its most fundamental level made up of unanalyzable substances that are characterized by universals, such as the properties an individual substance has or relations that exist between substances. The closely related to substratum theory says that each concrete object is made up of properties and a substratum. The difference is that the substratum

2550-412: Is a related method in phenomenological ontology that aims to identify the essential features of different types of objects. Phenomenologists start by imagining an example of the investigated type. They proceed by varying the imagined features to determine which ones cannot be changed, meaning they are essential. The transcendental method begins with a simple observation that a certain entity exists. In

2652-574: Is between analytic and speculative ontology. Analytic ontology examines the types and categories of being to determine what kinds of things could exist and what features they would have. Speculative ontology aims to determine which entities actually exist, for example, whether there are numbers or whether time is an illusion. Metaontology studies the underlying concepts, assumptions, and methods of ontology. Unlike other forms of ontology, it does not ask "what exists" but "what does it mean for something to exist" and "how can people determine what exists". It

2754-706: Is closely related to fundamental ontology , an approach developed by philosopher Martin Heidegger that seeks to uncover the meaning of being. The term realism is used for various theories that affirm that some kind of phenomenon is real or has mind-independent existence. Ontological realism is the view that there are objective facts about what exists and what the nature and categories of being are. Ontological realists do not make claims about what those facts are, for example, whether elementary particles exist. They merely state that there are mind-independent facts that determine which ontological theories are true. This idea

2856-479: Is controversial whether a more substantial analysis of the concept or meaning of being is possible. One proposal understands being as a property possessed by every entity. Critics argue that a thing without being cannot have properties. This means that properties presuppose being and cannot explain it. Another suggestion is that all beings share a set of essential features. According to the Eleatic principle , "power

2958-436: Is denied by ontological anti-realists, also called ontological deflationists, who say that there are no substantive facts one way or the other. According to philosopher Rudolf Carnap , for example, ontological statements are relative to language and depend on the ontological framework of the speaker. This means that there are no framework-independent ontological facts since different frameworks provide different views while there

3060-400: Is different from other components such as Shlokas , Anuvyakhayas and Vyakhyas found in ancient Indian literature. A sūtra is a condensed rule which succinctly states the message, while a Shloka is a verse that conveys the complete message and is structured to certain rules of musical meter, an Anuvyakhaya is an explanation of the reviewed text, while a Vyakhya is a comment by

3162-507: Is disputed. A traditionally influential characterization asserts that ontology is a subdiscipline of metaphysics. According to this view, metaphysics is the study of various aspects of fundamental reality, whereas ontology restricts itself to the most general features of reality. This view sees ontology as general metaphysics, which is to be distinguished from special metaphysics focused on more specific subject matters, like God , mind , and value . A different conception understands ontology as

Sautrāntika - Misplaced Pages Continue

3264-399: Is essential if an entity must have it; it is accidental if the entity can exist without it. For instance, having three sides is an essential property of a triangle, whereas being red is an accidental property. Relations are ways how two or more entities stand to one another. Unlike properties, they apply to several entities and characterize them as a group. For example, being a city is

3366-603: Is material. This means that mental phenomena, such as beliefs, emotions, and consciousness, either do not exist or exist as aspects of matter, like brain states. Idealists take the converse perspective, arguing that everything is mental. They may understand physical phenomena, like rocks, trees, and planets, as ideas or perceptions of conscious minds. Neutral monism occupies a middle ground by saying that both mind and matter are derivative phenomena. Dualists state that mind and matter exist as independent principles, either as distinct substances or different types of properties . In

3468-456: Is necessary that three plus two equals five". Possibility and necessity contrast with actuality, which describes what is the case, as in " Doha is the capital of Qatar ". Ontologists often use the concept of possible worlds to analyze possibility and necessity. A possible world is a complete and consistent way how things could have been. For example, Haruki Murakami was born in 1949 in the actual world but there are possible worlds in which he

3570-455: Is no objectively right or wrong framework. In a more narrow sense, realism refers to the existence of certain types of entities. Realists about universals say that universals have mind-independent existence. According to Platonic realists , universals exist not only independent of the mind but also independent of particular objects that exemplify them. This means that the universal red could exist by itself even if there were no red objects in

3672-410: Is no proof that it is not. (Sutra 1, Book 6) This different from body, because of heterogeneousness. (Sutra 2, Book 6) Also because it is expressed by means of the sixth case. (Sutra 3, Book 6) With Vijnanabhiksu's commentary bhasya filled in: Soul is, for there is no proof that it is not, since we are aware of "I think", because there is no evidence to defeat this. Therefore all that is to be done

3774-445: Is no single standard method; the diverse approaches are studied by metaontology . Conceptual analysis is a method to understand ontological concepts and clarify their meaning. It proceeds by analyzing their component parts and the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a concept applies to an entity. This information can help ontologists decide whether a certain type of entity, such as numbers, exists. Eidetic variation

3876-412: Is not characterized by properties: it is a featureless or bare particular that merely supports the properties. Various alternative ontological theories have been proposed that deny the role of substances as the foundational building blocks of reality. Stuff ontologies say that the world is not populated by distinct entities but by continuous stuff that fills space. This stuff may take various forms and

3978-402: Is often conceived as infinitely divisible. According to process ontology , processes or events are the fundamental entities. This view usually emphasizes that nothing in reality is static, meaning that being is dynamic and characterized by constant change. Bundle theories state that there are no regular objects but only bundles of co-present properties. For example, a lemon may be understood as

4080-460: Is present but not the others. According to perdurantists, change means that an earlier part exhibits different qualities than a later part. When a tree loses its leaves, for instance, there is an earlier temporal part with leaves and a later temporal part without leaves. Differential ontology is a poststructuralist approach interested in the relation between the concepts of identity and difference . It says that traditional ontology sees identity as

4182-508: Is relational at its most fundamental level. Ontic structural realism agrees with this basic idea and focuses on how these relations form complex structures. Some structural realists state that there is nothing but relations, meaning that individual objects do not exist. Others say that individual objects exist but depend on the structures in which they participate. Fact ontologies present a different approach by focusing on how entities belonging to different categories come together to constitute

Sautrāntika - Misplaced Pages Continue

4284-444: Is that a thing either exists or not with no intermediary states or degrees. The relation between being and non-being is a frequent topic in ontology. Influential issues include the status of nonexistent objects and why there is something rather than nothing . A central distinction in ontology is between particular and universal entities. Particulars, also called individuals , are unique, non-repeatable entities, like Socrates ,

4386-564: Is the Tattvartha Sutra , a Sanskrit text accepted by all four Jainism sects as the most authoritative philosophical text that completely summarizes the foundations of Jainism. Ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality . As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every entity within it. To articulate

4488-417: Is the mark of being", meaning that only entities with causal influence truly exist. A controversial proposal by philosopher George Berkeley suggests that all existence is mental. He expressed this immaterialism in his slogan "to be is to be perceived". Depending on the context, the term being is sometimes used with a more limited meaning to refer only to certain aspects of reality. In one sense, being

4590-521: Is the relation between a ground and the facts it explains. An ontological commitment of a person or a theory is an entity that exists according to them. For instance, a person who believes in God has an ontological commitment to God . Ontological commitments can be used to analyze which ontologies people explicitly defend or implicitly assume. They play a central role in contemporary metaphysics when trying to decide between competing theories. For example,

4692-514: Is to discriminate it from things in general. (Sutra 1, Book 6) This soul is different from the body because of heterogeneousness or complete difference between the two. (Sutra 2, Book 6) Also because it, the Soul, is expressed by means of the sixth case, for the learned express it by the possessive case in such examples as 'this is my body', 'this my understanding'; for the possessive case would be unaccountable if there were absolute non-difference, between

4794-571: Is unchanging and permanent, in contrast to becoming, which implies change. Another contrast is between being, as what truly exists, and phenomena , as what appears to exist. In some contexts, being expresses the fact that something is while essence expresses its qualities or what it is like. Ontologists often divide being into fundamental classes or highest kinds, called categories of being . Proposed categories include substance, property , relation , state of affairs , and event . They can be used to provide systems of categories, which offer

4896-582: The Abhidharmakośabhāṣya of Vasubandhu . The name Sautrāntika indicates that unlike other North Indian Sthaviras , this school held the Buddhist sutras as central to their views, over and above the ideas presented in the Abhidharma literature. The Sarvastivada scholar Samghabhadra, in his Nyayanusara , attacks a school of thought named Sautrantika which he associates with the scholars Śrīlāta and his student Vasubandhu . According to Samghabhadra,

4998-492: The Jain Agamas as well as some later (post-canonical) normative texts. The Sanskrit word Sūtra ( Sanskrit : सूत्र, Pali : sutta , Ardha Magadhi : sūya ) means "string, thread". The root of the word is siv , "that which sews and holds things together". The word is related to sūci (Sanskrit: सूचि) meaning "needle, list", and sūnā (Sanskrit: सूना) meaning "woven". In the context of literature, sūtra means

5100-456: The Quine–Putnam indispensability argument defends mathematical Platonism , asserting that numbers exist because the best scientific theories are ontologically committed to numbers. Possibility and necessity are further topics in ontology. Possibility describes what can be the case, as in "it is possible that extraterrestrial life exists". Necessity describes what must be the case, as in "it

5202-624: The Taj Mahal , and Mars . Universals are general, repeatable entities, like the color green , the form circularity , and the virtue courage . Universals express aspects or features shared by particulars. For example, Mount Everest and Mount Fuji are particulars characterized by the universal mountain . Universals can take the form of properties or relations. Properties describe the characteristics of things. They are features or qualities possessed by an entity. Properties are often divided into essential and accidental properties . A property

SECTION 50

#1732780113381

5304-774: The Tattvasiddhi -śāstra in order to "eliminate confusion and abandon the later developments, with the hope of returning to the origin". The Tattvasiddhi was translated into Chinese and became an important text in Chinese Buddhism until the Tang Dynasty. Other works by Sautrāntika affiliated authors include the Abhidharmāmṛtarasa-śāstra attributed to Ghoṣaka , and the Abhidharmāvatāra-śāstra attributed to Skandhila . The elder Śrīlāta , who

5406-515: The Vaibhāṣika tradition from a Sautrāntika perspective. The Abhidharmakośa was highly influential and is the main text on Abhidharma used in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism up until today. Buddhist logic ( pramāṇavāda ) as developed by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti is also associated with the Sautrāntika school. [REDACTED] Religion portal No separate vinaya (monastic code) specific to

5508-642: The Vaisheshika school, distinguishes between six categories: substance , quality, motion, universal, individuator, and inherence. Immanuel Kant 's transcendental idealism includes a system of twelve categories, which Kant saw as pure concepts of understanding. They are subdivided into four classes: quantity, quality, relation, and modality. In more recent philosophy, theories of categories were developed by C. S. Peirce , Edmund Husserl , Samuel Alexander , Roderick Chisholm , and E. J. Lowe . The dispute between constituent and relational ontologies concerns

5610-502: The ancient period with speculations about the nature of being and the source of the universe, including ancient Indian , Chinese , and Greek philosophy . In the modern period, philosophers conceived ontology as a distinct academic discipline and coined its name. Ontology is the study of being. It is the branch of philosophy that investigates the nature of existence , the features all entities have in common, and how they are divided into basic categories of being . It aims to discover

5712-402: The history of philosophy , various ontological theories based on several fundamental categories have been proposed. One of the first theories of categories was suggested by Aristotle , whose system includes ten categories: substance, quantity , quality , relation, place, date, posture, state, action, and passion. An early influential system of categories in Indian philosophy, first proposed in

5814-404: The social sciences . Applied ontology is of particular relevance to information and computer science , which develop conceptual frameworks of limited domains . These frameworks are used to store information in a structured way, such as a college database tracking academic activities. Ontology is relevant to the fields of logic , theology , and anthropology . The origins of ontology lie in

5916-530: The " weft ". The oldest manuscripts that have survived into the modern era that contain extensive sutras are part of the Vedas , dated from the late 2nd millennium BCE through to the mid 1st millennium BCE. The Aitareya Aranyaka , for example, states Winternitz, is primarily a collection of sutras . Their use and ancient roots are attested by sutras being mentioned in larger genre of ancient non-Vedic Hindu literature called Gatha , Narashansi , Itihasa , and Akhyana (songs, legends, epics, and stories). In

6018-682: The Jain sutras. In Chinese, these are known as 經 ( pinyin : jīng ). These teachings are organized as part of the Tripiṭaka , specifically referred to as the Sutta Pitaka . Numerous significant or influential Mahayana texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Lotus Sutra , are termed sutras despite being attributed to much later authors. In Theravada Buddhism , suttas constitute

6120-566: The Rings , and people, like the Monkey King in the novel Journey to the West . Some philosophers say that fictional objects are abstract objects and exist outside space and time. Others understand them as artifacts that are created as the works of fiction are written. Intentional objects are entities that exist within mental states , like perceptions , beliefs , and desires . For example, if

6222-544: The Sautrāntika "one of the biggest problems in current Buddhist scholarship". The founding of the Sautrāntika school is attributed to the elder Kumāralāta (c. 3rd century CE), author of a "collection of dṛṣtānta" ( Dṛṣtāntapaṅkti ) called the Kalpanāmaṇḍitīkā . The Sautrāntikas were sometimes also called "disciples of Kumāralāta". According to Chinese sources, Harivarman (250-350 CE) was a student of Kumāralāta who became disillusioned with Buddhist Abhidharma and then wrote

SECTION 60

#1732780113381

6324-616: The Sautrāntika has been found, nor is the existence of any such separate disciplinary code evidenced in other texts; this indicates that they were likely only a doctrinal division within the Sarvāstivādin school. The Sautrāntika criticized the Sarvāstivādins on various matters such as ontology , philosophy of mind and perception . While the Sarvāstivādin abhidharma described a complex system in which past, present, and future phenomena are all held to have some form of their own existence,

6426-658: The Sautrāntika subscribed to a doctrine of "extreme momentariness" that held that only the present moment existed . They seem to have regarded the Sarvāstivādin position as a violation of the basic Buddhist principle of impermanence . As explained by Jan Westerhoff, this doctrine of momentariness holds that each present moment "does not possess any temporal thickness; immediately after coming into existence each moment passes out of existence" and that therefore "all dharmas, whether mental or material, only last for an instant (ksana) and cease immediately after arising". The Sarvāstivādin abhidharma also broke down human experience in terms of

6528-696: The Vedic era to be necessary for reading the Veda, the second two for understanding it, and the last two for deploying the Vedic knowledge at yajnas (fire rituals). The sutras corresponding to these are embedded inside the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas. Taittiriya Aranyaka, for example in Book 7, embeds sutras for accurate pronunciation after the terse phrases "On Letters", "On Accents", "On Quantity", "On Delivery", and "On Euphonic Laws". The fourth and often

6630-422: The analysis of concepts and experience , the use of intuitions and thought experiments , and the integration of findings from natural science . Formal ontology is the branch of ontology investigating the most abstract features of objects. Applied ontology employs ontological theories and principles to study entities belonging to a specific area. For example, social ontology examines basic concepts used in

6732-428: The basic structure of being, ontology examines what all things have in common. It also investigates how they can be grouped into basic types, such as the categories of particulars and universals . Particulars are unique, non-repeatable entities, like the person Socrates . Universals are general, repeatable entities, like the color green . Another contrast is between concrete objects existing in space and time, like

6834-552: The body or the like, and the Soul to which it is thus attributed as a possession. (Sutra 3, Book 6) – Kapila in Samkhya Sutra , Translated by James Robert Ballantyne Reality is truth ( prāma , foundation of correct knowledge), and what is true is so, irrespective of whether we know it is, or are aware of that truth. – Akṣapada Gautama in Nyaya Sutra , Translated by Jeaneane D Fowler In Buddhism,

6936-564: The doctrine of contemporaneous Buddhas. Sutra Sutra ( Sanskrit : सूत्र , romanized :  sūtra , lit.   'string, thread') in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a condensed manual or text. Sutras are a genre of ancient and medieval Indian texts found in Hinduism , Buddhism and Jainism . In Hinduism, sutras are

7038-499: The entities in the collection touch one another. The problem of material constitution asks whether or in what sense a whole should be considered a new object in addition to the collection of parts composing it. Abstract objects are closely related to fictional and intentional objects . Fictional objects are entities invented in works of fiction . They can be things, like the One Ring in J. R. R. Tolkien 's book series The Lord of

7140-522: The exact relationship between the two terms is unclear. Charles Willemen identifies the Sautrāntika as a Western branch of the Sarvāstivādins, active in the Gandhara area, who split from the Sarvāstivādins sometime before 200 CE, when the Sautrāntika name emerged. Other scholars are less confident of a specific identification for the Sautrāntika; Nobuyoshi Yamabe calls specifying the precise identity of

7242-430: The features characteristic of a specific area. Examples are ideal spatial beings in the area of geometry and living beings in the area of biology. Descriptive ontology aims to articulate the conceptual scheme underlying how people ordinarily think about the world. Prescriptive ontology departs from common conceptions of the structure of reality and seeks to formulate a new and better conceptualization. Another contrast

7344-555: The following step, it studies the ontological repercussions of this observation by examining how it is possible or which conditions are required for this entity to exist. Another approach is based on intuitions in the form of non-inferential impressions about the correctness of general principles. These principles can be used as the foundation on which an ontological system is built and expanded using deductive reasoning . A further intuition-based method relies on thought experiments to evoke new intuitions. This happens by imagining

7446-409: The form of systems of categories, which list the highest genera of being to provide a comprehensive inventory of everything. The closely related discussion between monism and dualism is about the most fundamental types that make up reality. According to monism, there is only one kind of thing or substance on the most basic level. Materialism is an influential monist view; it says that everything

7548-400: The foundational building blocks of the world and characterize reality as a whole in its most general aspects. In this regard, ontology contrasts with individual sciences like biology and astronomy , which restrict themselves to a limited domain of entities, such as living entities and celestial phenomena. In some contexts, the term ontology refers not to the general study of being but to

7650-420: The history of Indian literature, large compilations of sutras, in diverse fields of knowledge, have been traced to the period from 600 BCE to 200 BCE (mostly after Buddha and Mahavira), and this has been called the "sutras period". This period followed the more ancient Chhandas period , Mantra period and Brahmana period . (The ancient) Indian pupil learnt these sutras of grammar, philosophy or theology by

7752-427: The history of ontology as the particular entities that underlie and support properties and relations. They are often considered the fundamental building blocks of reality that can exist on their own, while entities like properties and relations cannot exist without substances. Substances persist through changes as they acquire or lose properties. For example, when a tomato ripens, it loses the property green and acquires

7854-588: The internal structure of concrete particular objects. Constituent ontologies say that objects have an internal structure with properties as their component parts. Bundle theories are an example of this position: they state that objects are bundles of properties. This view is rejected by relational ontologies, which say that objects have no internal structure, meaning that properties do not inhere in them but are externally related to them. According to one analogy, objects are like pin-cushions and properties are pins that can be stuck to objects and removed again without becoming

7956-1001: The last layer of philosophical, speculative text in the Vedas, the Upanishads, too have embedded sutras such as those found in the Taittiriya Upanishad . The compendium of ancient Vedic sutra literature that has survived, in full or fragments, includes the Kalpa Sutras , Shulba Sutras , Srauta Sutras , Dharma Sutras , Grhya Sutras , and Smarta traditions . Other fields for which ancient sutras are known include etymology, phonetics, and grammar. Example of sutras from Vedanta Sutra अथातो ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा ॥१.१.१॥ जन्माद्यस्य यतः ॥ १.१.२॥ शास्त्रयोनित्वात् ॥ १.१.३॥ तत्तुसमन्वयात् ॥ १.१.४॥ ईक्षतेर्नाशब्दम् ॥ १.१.५॥ — Brahma Sutra 1.1.1–1.1.5 Some examples of sutra texts in various schools of Hindu philosophy include Sutra, without commentary: Soul is, for there

8058-603: The level at which it exists. The ontological theories of endurantism and perdurantism aim to explain how material objects persist through time. Endurantism is the view that material objects are three-dimensional entities that travel through time while being fully present in each moment. They remain the same even when they gain or lose properties as they change. Perdurantism is the view that material objects are four-dimensional entities that extend not just through space but also through time. This means that they are composed of temporal parts and, at any moment, only one part of them

8160-418: The macroscopic objects they compose, like chairs and tables. Other hierarchical theories assert that substances are more fundamental than their properties and that nature is more fundamental than culture. Flat ontologies, by contrast, deny that any entity has a privileged status, meaning that all entities exist on the same level. For them, the main question is only whether something exists rather than identifying

8262-530: The mind while nominalism denies their existence. There are similar disputes about mathematical objects , unobservable objects assumed by scientific theories, and moral facts . Materialism says that, fundamentally, there is only matter while dualism asserts that mind and matter are independent principles. According to some ontologists, there are no objective answers to ontological questions but only perspectives shaped by different linguistic practices. Ontology uses diverse methods of inquiry . They include

8364-420: The more basic term by first characterizing things in terms of their essential features and then elaborating differences based on this conception. Differential ontologists, by contrast, privilege difference and say that the identity of a thing is a secondary determination that depends on how this thing differs from other things. Object-oriented ontology belongs to the school of speculative realism and examines

8466-406: The nature and role of objects. It sees objects as the fundamental building blocks of reality. As a flat ontology, it denies that some entities have a more fundamental form of existence than others. It uses this idea to argue that objects exist independently of human thought and perception. Methods of ontology are ways of conducting ontological inquiry and deciding between competing theories. There

8568-450: The next. In Buddhism, sutras, also known as suttas , are canonical scriptures , many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha . They are not aphoristic, but are quite detailed, sometimes with repetition. This may reflect a derivation from Vedic or Sanskrit sūkta (well spoken), rather than from sūtra (thread). In Jainism, sutras, also known as suyas , are canonical sermons of Mahavira contained in

8670-422: The objective or mind-independent reality of natural phenomena like elementary particles, lions, and stars. In the fields of computer science , information science , and knowledge representation , applied ontology is interested in the development of formal frameworks to encode and store information about a limited domain of entities in a structured way. A related application in genetics is Gene Ontology , which

8772-399: The outcomes of experiments. Moral realists claim that there exist mind-independent moral facts. According to them, there are objective principles that determine which behavior is morally right. Moral anti-realists either claim that moral principles are subjective and differ between persons and cultures, a position known as moral relativism , or outright deny the existence of moral facts,

8874-406: The property red . States of affairs are complex particular entities that have several other entities as their components. The state of affairs "Socrates is wise" has two components: the individual Socrates and the property wise . States of affairs that correspond to reality are called facts . Facts are truthmakers of statements, meaning that whether a statement is true or false depends on

8976-652: The reviewer. Sutras first appear in the Brahmana and Aranyaka layer of Vedic literature. They grow in number in the Vedangas, such as the Shrauta Sutras and Kalpa Sutras. These were designed so that they can be easily communicated from a teacher to student, memorized by the recipient for discussion or self-study or as reference. A sutra by itself is condensed shorthand, and the threads of syllable are difficult to decipher or understand without associated scholarly Bhasya or deciphering commentary that fills in

9078-622: The rules of musical meters for Samaveda chants and songs. A larger collection of ancient sutra literature in Hinduism corresponds to the six Vedangas, or six limbs of the Vedas . These are six subjects that said in the Vedas to be necessary for complete mastery of the Vedas. The six subjects with their own sutras were "pronunciation ( Shiksha ), meter ( Chandas ), grammar ( Vyakarana ), explanation of words ( Nirukta ), time keeping through astronomy ( Jyotisha ), and ceremonial rituals (Kalpa). The first two, states Max Muller, were considered in

9180-426: The same features, such as perfect identical twins. This is also called exact similarity and indiscernibility . Numerical identity, by contrast, means that there is only a single entity. For example, if Fatima is the mother of Leila and Hugo then Leila's mother is numerically identical to Hugo's mother. Another distinction is between synchronic and diachronic identity. Synchronic identity relates an entity to itself at

9282-475: The same mechanical method which fixes in our (modern era) minds the alphabet and the multiplication table. Traditional Some of the earliest surviving specimens of sutras of Hinduism are found in the Anupada Sutras and Nidana Sutras . The former distills the epistemic debate whether Sruti or Smriti or neither must be considered the more reliable source of knowledge, while the latter distills

9384-441: The same time. Diachronic identity relates an entity to itself at different times, as in "the woman who bore Leila three years ago is the same woman who bore Hugo this year". There are different and sometimes overlapping ways to divide ontology into branches. Pure ontology focuses on the most abstract topics associated with the concept and nature of being. It is not restricted to a specific domain of entities and studies existence and

9486-586: The second "basket" (pitaka) of the Pāli Canon . Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi describe the Sutta Pitaka as: The Sutta Pitaka, the second collection, brings together the Buddha's discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his active ministry of forty-five years. In the Jain tradition, sutras are an important genre of "fixed text", which used to be memorized. The Kalpa Sūtra is, for example,

9588-407: The second entity. For instance, the surface of an apple cannot exist without the apple. An entity is ontologically independent if it does not depend on anything else, meaning that it is fundamental and can exist on its own. Ontological dependence plays a central role in ontology and its attempt to describe reality on its most fundamental level. It is closely related to metaphysical grounding , which

9690-420: The structure of reality as a whole. Pure ontology contrasts with applied ontology , also called domain ontology. Applied ontology examines the application of ontological theories and principles to specific disciplines and domains, often in the field of science. It considers ontological problems in regard to specific entities such as matter , mind , numbers , God , and cultural artifacts. Social ontology ,

9792-482: The underlying facts. Events are particular entities that occur in time, like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first moon landing . They usually involve some kind of change, like the lawn becoming dry. In some cases, no change occurs, like the lawn staying wet. Complex events, also called processes , are composed of a sequence of events. Concrete objects are entities that exist in space and time, such as

9894-556: The word ontology traces back to the ancient Greek terms ὄντως ( ontos , meaning ' being ' ) and λογία ( logia , meaning ' study of ' ), literally, ' the study of being ' . The ancient Greeks did not use the term ontology , which was coined by philosophers in the 17th century. Being, or existence , is the main topic of ontology. It is one of the most general and fundamental concepts, encompassing all of reality and every entity within it. In its broadest sense, being only contrasts with non-being or nothingness. It

9996-808: The world is entirely composed of particular objects. Mathematical realism , a closely related view in the philosophy of mathematics , says that mathematical facts exist independently of human language, thought, and practices and are discovered rather than invented. According to mathematical Platonism, this is the case because of the existence of mathematical objects , like numbers and sets. Mathematical Platonists say that mathematical objects are as real as physical objects, like atoms and stars, even though they are not accessible to empirical observation . Influential forms of mathematical anti-realism include conventionalism, which says that mathematical theories are trivially true simply by how mathematical terms are defined, and game formalism , which understands mathematics not as

10098-452: The world. Aristotelian realism, also called moderate realism , rejects this idea and says that universals only exist as long as there are objects that exemplify them. Conceptualism , by contrast, is a form of anti-realism, stating that universals only exist in the mind as concepts that people use to understand and categorize the world. Nominalists defend a strong form of anti-realism by saying that universals have no existence. This means that

10200-491: The world. Facts, also known as states of affairs, are complex entities; for example, the fact that the Earth is a planet consists of the particular object the Earth and the property being a planet . Fact ontologies state that facts are the fundamental constituents of reality, meaning that objects, properties, and relations cannot exist on their own and only form part of reality to the extent that they participate in facts. In

10302-506: Was Vasubandhu 's teacher is also known as a famous Sautrāntika who wrote the Sautrāntika-vibhāṣa . Ghoṣaka's Abhidharmāmṛtarasa and Harivarman's Tattvasiddhi have both been translated into English. The Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu wrote the famous Abhidharma work Abhidharmakośakārikā which presented Sarvāstivāda - Vaibhāṣika Abhidharma tenets, he also wrote a " bhāṣya " or commentary on this work, which presented critiques of

10404-420: Was born at a different date. Using this idea, possible world semantics says that a sentence is possibly true if it is true in at least one possible world. A sentence is necessarily true if it is true in all possible worlds. In ontology, identity means that two things are the same. Philosophers distinguish between qualitative and numerical identity. Two entities are qualitatively identical if they have exactly

#380619