On a Logical Reconstruction of the Kathavatthu

DOI

10.2991/iccessh-18.2018.329How to use a DOI?

Keywords

modus ponens; modus tollens; Kathavatthu; Milindapanha

Abstract

The Kathavatthu is one of the treatises of the Abhidhamma Pitaka of the Pali Canon. This treatise contains many different syllogisms - first of all, modus ponens and modus tollens. It is quite unique, because the same huge number of syllogisms involved into reasoning are contained only in the Milindapanha - another treatise of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Usually, the authors of the Pali Canon do not appeal to pure syllogisms. In this paper, I show that syllogisms play rather a rhetoric role in the Kathavatthu. So, the author of the Kathavatthu had no excellent competence in logic because there are many sophisms among correct syllogisms and in the Kathavatthu there is no requirement to give examples in syllogisms. But the latter requirement is one of the principal ideas of the Indian logic to give examples for verifying premises. It is worth noting that in the Milindapanha there are no sophisms and there is a rule to exemplify premises.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Andrew Schumann
PY  - 2018/07
DA  - 2018/07
TI  - On a Logical Reconstruction of the Kathavatthu
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICCESSH 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1509
EP  - 1512
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/iccessh-18.2018.329
DO  - 10.2991/iccessh-18.2018.329
ID  - Schumann2018/07
ER  -