Anumāna
Basic Meaning
a form of conceptual cognition that does not apprehend its object directly, but by using logical signs and valid reasons to infer the existence of more subtle phenomena that are not immediately accessible to our sense consciousnesses
Has the Sense of
a conceptual cognition that uses evidence and reasoning to imply or infer the existence of phenomena not directly manifest to us
Discussion of the term
Inference (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag) is a way of knowing something indirectly, using logic and reasoning to access rather than direct experience. It is used in the Buddhist tradition to gain insight into deeper levels of reality of self and phenomena.
In the Buddhist tradition of logic and epistemology, valid cognition (pramāṇa; T. tshad ma) is required to validate phenomena and to establish their existence. There are principal forms of this valid cognition– direct perception (pratyakṣa; T. mngon sum) and inference, or inferential valid cognition (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag).
In contrast to non-conceptual direct perception, inference is a conceptual cognition that uses mental images of phenomena to apprehend things that are hidden from our senses and therefore not directly accessible to us. Inference is particularly used in the Buddhist tradition to establish the existence of slightly hidden phenomena (T. cung zad lkog gyur), using correct logical reasons (liṅga) or signs (hetu). In the classical examples, we use these logical structures to infer simple examples, such as the existence of fire hidden behind a hill using the presence of smoke as evidence. Logical statements with deeper meaning are then used to prove the subtle impermanence of conditioned phenomena with the reason of being produced by causes and conditions; or proving the lack of true existence with the reason of being interdependent. Inference is the conceptual cognition that apprehends these less manifest objects, and is the consciousness that is the product of the reasoning process. The system of Buddhist epistemology using inference was particularly developed and systematized by the Indian masters Dignāga and Dharmakīrti.
| Term Variations | |
| Key Term | Anumāna |
|---|---|
| Topic Variation | anumāna |
| Tibetan | རྗེས་དཔག་ ( jepak) |
| Wylie Transliteration | rjes dpag ( jepak) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | अनुमान |
| Romanized Sanskrit | anumāna |
| Chinese | 比量 |
| Chinese Pinyin | bǐliàng |
| Japanese Transliteration | hiryō |
| Korean | biryang |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | inference |
| Alternate Spellings | rjes su dpag pa, rjes dpag tshad ma |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | a form of conceptual cognition that does not apprehend its object directly, but by using logical signs and valid reasons to infer the existence of more subtle phenomena that are not immediately accessible to our sense consciousnesses |
| Has the Sense of | a conceptual cognition that uses evidence and reasoning to imply or infer the existence of phenomena not directly manifest to us |
| Further Explanation | Inference (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag) is a way of knowing something indirectly, using logic and reasoning to access rather than direct experience. It is used in the Buddhist tradition to gain insight into deeper levels of reality of self and phenomena.
In the Buddhist tradition of logic and epistemology, valid cognition (pramāṇa; T. tshad ma) is required to validate phenomena and to establish their existence. There are principal forms of this valid cognition– direct perception (pratyakṣa; T. mngon sum) and inference, or inferential valid cognition (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag).
In contrast to non-conceptual direct perception, inference is a conceptual cognition that uses mental images of phenomena to apprehend things that are hidden from our senses and therefore not directly accessible to us. Inference is particularly used in the Buddhist tradition to establish the existence of slightly hidden phenomena (T. cung zad lkog gyur), using correct logical reasons (liṅga) or signs (hetu). In the classical examples, we use these logical structures to infer simple examples, such as the existence of fire hidden behind a hill using the presence of smoke as evidence. Logical statements with deeper meaning are then used to prove the subtle impermanence of conditioned phenomena with the reason of being produced by causes and conditions; or proving the lack of true existence with the reason of being interdependent.
Inference is the conceptual cognition that apprehends these less manifest objects, and is the consciousness that is the product of the reasoning process.
The system of Buddhist epistemology using inference was particularly developed and systematized by the Indian masters Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism | anumāna (T. rjes su dpag pa; C. tuiliang; J. suiryō; K. churyang fēn). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “inference.” In Buddhist logic and epistemology, inference is considered to be one of the two forms of valid knowledge (pramāṇa), along with direct perception (pratyakṣa). Inference allows us to glean knowledge concerning objects that are not directly evident to the senses. In the Buddhist logical traditions, inferences may be drawn from logical signs (hetu, liṅga); e.g., there is a fire on the mountain (sādhya), because there is smoke (sādhana), like a stove (sapakṣa), unlike a lake (vipakṣa). |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | རྟགས་མཐོང་ཞིང་འབྲེལ་བ་ངེས་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་སྒྲུབ་བྱ་དཔོག་པའམ་གཞལ་བྱ་ལྐོག་གྱུར་འཇལ་བ་སྟེ། དུ་བ་དང་ཆུ་སྐྱར་གྱི་རྟགས་ལས་མེ་དང་ཆུ་ཡོད་པར་དཔོག་པ་ལྟ་བུའོ།། |
