Dharmakīrti’s Puzzle: Causal Inferences without Causation
Conference
Speaker: Parimal G. Patil, Harvard University
Start: Nov 06, 2026 - 04:30pm
End: Nov 06, 2026 - 06:30pm
Where: MITCH 101
Description:
The Indian Buddhist philosopher, Dharmakīrti (c. 550/600-660 CE), rejects the view that relations, including causal relations, are real. Nevertheless, he provides a detailed account of what causation consists in, how to determine whether two things are related as effect and cause, and the role that causal relations play in causal inference, which Dharmakīrti takes to be a source of knowledge. There is an obvious puzzle: Dharmakīrti's epistemology appears to require a relation that his ontology and metaphysics denies. In this paper, I discuss Dharmakīrti's views on causal relations. I show that Dharmakīrti is an eliminativist about dyadic relations; a reductionist about causation; and a causal pragmatist. I argue that the positive account of causation that supports Dharmakīrti's views is a refined version of regularity theory infused with a deflationary minimal sufficiency account. I conclude by discussing some problems with Dharmakīrti's view and proposing a solution to Dharmakīrti's puzzle.