Issue #42

Abstract: The study is devoted to the analysis of the mutual influence of the ontological and epistemological principles of the Pratyabhijñā doctrine, which constitutes a rational core of Kashmir Shaivism, in the context of identifying its epistemological implications. The most significant of them are considered the distinction between the reality of knowledge and its truth, i.e., strong disjunctivism, and the svataḥ prāmāṇya doctrine. The first part of the study is devoted to discerning the basic epistemological principles of the Pratyabhijñā in the context of its general ontology. It is concluded that one of the foundations of the latter, a particular interpretation of the svataḥ prakāśa doctrine, necessarily presupposes and additionally justifies the principle of svataḥ prāmāṇya. Besides, the epistemology of the Pratyabhijñā is examined as a paradigm case of strong disjunctivism. In turn, the second part analyzes the influence of the epistemological implications of the Pratyabhijñā doctrine on the formulation of its basic ontological principles. It is concluded that given its virtual equation of reality with knowledge, one of its salient features, namely the identification of error and truth at the ontological level, would not be possible without a preliminary distinction between the reality of knowledge and its truth at the epistemological level. Besides, it is shown how this entire set of principles allowed the philosophers of the Pratyabhijñā to characterize the limited subject as sentient even while considering it an object and offer an interpretation of false egoity that is unusual by the standards of Indian “soteriology”.