Philosophy of language in the Five Nikayas

by K.T.S. Sarao | 2013 | 141,449 words

Buddhism Theravada

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Summary: This is an English study of the Philosophy of language in the Five Nikayas, from the perspective of linguistics. The Five Nikayas, in Theravada Buddhism, refers to the five books of the Sutta Pitaka (“Basket of Sutra”), which itself is the second division of the Pali Tipitaka of the Buddhist Canon (literature).

They are as follows: (1) Digha Nikaya or “Collection of Long Discourses”, (2) Majjhima Nikaya or “Collection of Middle-length Discourses”, (3) Samyutta Nikaya or “Collection of Kindred Sayings”, (4) Anguttara Nikaya or “Collection of Gradual Sayings” and (5) Khuddaka Nikaya or “Smaller Collections”.

Source 1: exoticindiaart.com
Source 2: shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

Contents of this online book ( + / - )

The full text of the Philosophy of language in the Five Nikayas in English is available here and publically accesible (free to read online). Of course, I would always recommend buying the book so you get the latest edition. You can see all this book’s content by visiting the pages in the below index:

Acknowledgements

General Introduction to the Thesis

+ Chapter 1 - Introduction

. 1. Preliminary

. 2. The Buddhist Pāli Tipiṭaka (Introduction)

. 2.1. The First Buddhist Council

. 2.2. The Second Buddhist Council

. 2.3. The Third Buddhist Council

. 2.4. The Vinaya Piṭaka (Introduction)

. 2.5(a). The Sutta Piṭaka (Introduction)

. 2.5(b). Dīgha Nikāya (The Long Discourses of the Buddha)

. 2.5(c). Majjhima Nikāya (The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha)

. 2.5(d). Saṃyutta Nikāya (The Connected of Discourses of the Buddha)

. 2.5(e). Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha)

. 2.5(f). Khuddaka Nikāya (Collection of Little Texts)

. 2.6 The Abhiddhamma Piṭaka

. 3. Objective of Study

. 4. Scope of Research

. 5. Sources Of Research

. 6. Research Methodology

. 7. Structure of Thesis

. 8. Conclusion

+ Chapter 2 - Concept of Philosophy of Language

. 1. Preliminary

. 2. Philosophy: An Overview

. 3. On Language (1): Definitions

. 3. On Language (2): Language as Unique Human Behaviour

. 3. On Language (3): Langue and Parole

. 3. On Language (4): Competence and Performance

. 3. On Language (5): Levels of Language

. 4.1. Rationalism versus Empiricism

. 4.2. Chomsky’s Criticism of Skinner’s Theory of Language

. 4.3. Faculty of Language

. 5. Language Comprehension

. 6. Language Production

. 7. Mind: A General View

. 8. Truth and Meaning

. 9. Logical Form

. 10. Semantics and Truth

. 11. Sense and Reference

. 12. Conclusion

+ Chapter 3 - Language and Meaning as Reflected in the Five Nikāyas

. 1. Preliminary

. 2. Theories of Meaning

. 3. Semantics (study of formal theories of meaning)

. 4. Sense as a Criterion of Identification of a Reference

. 5. Grice on Speaker’s Meaning and Sentence-Meaning

. 6. Distinctive Issues of the Five Nikāyas

. 6.1. Buddhist Terms: Dhamma

. 6.2. Buddhist Terms: Nibbāna

. 6.3. The Four Noble Truths

. 6.4. The Thirty-Seven Aids (Factors of Enlightenment)

. 6.5. The Four Planes of Liberation (The Four Noble Persons)

. 6.6. The Four Jhānas and the Four Arūpajjhānas

. 6.7. The Attainment of the Cessation of Perception and Feeling

. 7. Contexts of Language and Meaning in the Five Nikāyas

. 8. The Faith and the Truth

. 9. Methodological Characteristics of the Five Nikāyas

. 10. Conclusion

+ Chapter 4 - Philosophy of Language in the Five Nikāyas

. 1. Preliminary

. 2. Beyond Language

. 3.1. To Be Cultivated and Not To Be Cultivated

. 3.2. The Six Roots of Dispute

. 3.3. The Wholesome Courses of Speech

. 3.4. The Attitude to Abuse and Respect of Other

. 3.5. The Problems of Phonetics and Dialect

. 4. Language and Knowledge

. 5. Paññā (‘wisdom’) as a Light and a Sharp Sword

. 6. Sammādiṭṭhi and Language Comprehension

. 7. Unwholesome (akusala) and Wholesome (kusala)

. 8. The Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda)

. 9. The Five Aggregates (pañcakkhandha)

. 10. The Characteristic of Non-Self (anattā)

. 11.1. Samatha and Vipassanā

. 11.2. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

. 12. Description of Mind (Introduction)

. 12.1. Defiled Mind and Pure Mind

. 12.2. Five Wildernesses and Five Shackles in the Heart

. 12.3. Twelve Stains for a Recluse

. 12.4. Diversity of Mind

. 12.5. The Methods to Incline Mind

. 12.6. The Five Methods for Removing Unwholesome Thoughts

. 13. Development and Cultivation of the Four Immeasurable Minds

. 14. Conclusion

+ Chapter 5 - Language and Thought

. 1. Preliminary

. 2. Body and Mind (Introduction)

. 2.1. Brains as ‘Thinking Matter’

. 2.2. Action at A Distance

. 2.3. The Mechanics of Movement

. 3. Communicative Conception and Cognitive Conception (Introduction)

. 3.1. The Cognitive Conception

. 3.2. The Communicative Conception

. 4. From Behaviourism to Cognitivism

. 5. Sense versus Reference

. 6. Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

. 7. Correspondence of Linguistic Structures and Cognitive Structures

. 8. Modularity in Cognition

. 9. Language, Thought, and Language of Thought

. 10. Issues in Language and Thought

. 11.1. Metaphors

. 11.2. Metonymy

. 12. The Position of Buddhism on Language and Thought

. 13. Conclusion

+ Chapter 6 - Summary and Conclusions

. 1. General View

. 2. Summary and Conclusions

. 3. The Findings and Contributions of the Research Work

. 4. Conclusion

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Last Updated: 05 December, 2022

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