Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke's contribution to Buddhist philosophy longlasting

by Dr. P.D. Premasiri, Professor of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Peradeniya

It is indeed a privilege, particularly as someone who had the good fortune to be among the pupils of the late Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke, to be able to pay tribute to him on account of the commemoration of his 35th death anniversary. Prof K.N. Jayatilleke was one of the top ranking scholars of our time in the field of Buddhist philosophy.

At a time when the predominant tendency was to look towards alien ideas to seek intellectual guidance in every sphere of theoretical and practical concern, Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke, as professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Peradeniya, took great pains to convince the academic community as well as the general public that Buddhism can be valued not only as a religion, a faith or a creed but also as a challenging system of thought that could be valued from the perspectives of the highest achievements of the human intellect in philosophy and modern science.

It was his view that in the Sri Lankan context pride of place should be given to the study of Buddhist philosophy.

He endeavoured to show that Buddhism, as a world-view, is far superior to any other alternative in the history of Western and Eastern thought.

In accordance with this view Prof. Jayatilleke as a scholar well-equipped with a profound knowledge of the classical literature of the Buddhist tradition preserved in Pali and Sanskrit, an equal knowledge in other non-Buddhist Indian philosophies and religions, and in the Western philosophical traditions undertook the task of interpreting the Buddhist teachings from every possible perspective that was known to the discipline recognized as philosophy at the time.

Prof. Jayatilleke's main focus of attention was on the epistemology of early Buddhism. He embarked on his monumental work on Buddhist epistemology aiming at a doctoral degree from the University of London well-equipped with the academic training that he had acquired through his specialization in Indo-Aryan Studies at the University of Ceylon, and subsequently his specialization in philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

As a student who completed the Moral Sciences Tripos at the University of Cambridge, a degree course in Western philosophy, which had the highest accreditation by established academic standards at the time, he was determined to apply his sharpened analytical skills to investigate and interpret the Buddha's teachings from the perspective of comparative philosophy.

At the University of Cambridge he was exposed to the most renowned analytical philosophers of the time such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Wisdom. Prof. Jayatilleke's remarkable contribution to the study of Buddhist epistemology by his encyclopedic work Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge (George Allen Unwind Ltd. London, 1962) was the immediate product of his profound knowledge of Pali and Sanskrit and his expertise in Western Philosophy.

As conceived by Prof. Jayatilleke himself, Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge "seeks to evaluate the thought of the Pali Canon from a new point of view and in the light of new material. In it an attempt is made to uncover the epistemological foundations of Pali Canonical thought."

He probably believed, like Rene Descartes at the beginning of the modern period in Western philosophy, that the most important problem that takes precedence over all other problems of philosophy is concerned with the means and limits of knowledge. He believed that if Buddhism makes any claim to truth, questions such as how we establish the truth of any proposition, what is the nature of truth, what are the valid means by which truth is to be known and established are unavoidable. He has shown comprehensively with adequate evidence how the Buddha directly addressed these issues, and brought out some of the unique features of Buddhism that justify our recognition of it as an ancient philosophy that rejected authoritarian foundations for the truths that it propounded.

Prof. Jayatilleke exhaustively examined the pre-Buddhist religious and philosophical literature from a historical and critical perspective indicating the place for authority, reason and experience in the epistemological teachings of each tradition represented by that literature. In his attempt to race the epistemological foundations of Pali canonical Buddhism, he has not confined himself to an analysis of the material in the Pali canonical literature alone.

He has drawn information from almost all the relevant earlier and later source books of Indian philosophy, in order to assess the significance of the material contained in the Pali canonical literature from a historical perspective. In this exercise he has displayed intense thoroughness in his interpretation of the religious and philosophical concepts, which fell within the scope of his inquiry, and this has led him to a critical re-examination of the works of his predecessors in the field, in the process of which he has quite convincingly demolished many unreflective conclusions reached by them.

One could easily conclude that this work contains the most exhaustive treatment of the source material on the subject in the field of Buddhist scholarship in recent times. This is probably why R.H. Robinson calls Prof. Jayatilleke's work a masterpiece of Indology and of history of philosophy' (Journal of Asian Studies Vo1. XXVIII,p.380f.)

Prof. Jayatilleke based his analysis of Buddhist epistemology on a classification of religious and philosophical systems prevalent during the time of the Buddha by the Buddha himself (Sangarava Sutta). In this classification attributed to the Buddha, three groups of teachers are referred to as (1) traditionalists who depended on the authority of the Vedas, (2) rationalists who depended on their intellectual powers of reasoning, and (3) experimentalists, who depended on normal and paranormal experiences. Prof. Jayatilleke has attempted to identify these three groups in terms of the extant Indian philosophical and religious literature tracing the historical origin and development of each of these trends of thought in Indian epistemology.

His attempt was to show that early Buddhism was neither traditionalist nor rationalist but in some sense empiricist. He has also pointed out that some aspects of early Buddhist epistemology are comparable with logical positivism, an epistemological doctrine of twentieth century Western philosophy, which had developed out of Western empiricism. One of the main contentions of Prof. Jayatilleke is that like logical positivism of the West, early Buddhism also dissociated itself from metaphysical speculation.

Prof. Jayatilleke was undoubtedly influenced by the prevailing empiricist trend in Western philosophy during his time in his philosophical interpretations of Buddhism. Considering the subsequent developments in Western philosophy, one may not totally agree with his interpretation of Buddhist epistemology. Yet one cannot but give due credit to the attempt on his part to show that early Buddhism was not a system of mere non-rational dogmas.

He brought out with sufficient evidence that the core of the Buddha's teachings is based on the systematic exercise of reason and the legitimate use of experience in formulating its theories about the nature of man and the universe. Discussing in great detail the Buddha's critique of reason, he pointed out that the Buddha could not be classed as a rationalist in the strictly philosophical sense of the term according to which rationalism is contrasted with empiricism.

The Buddha was not a teacher who propounded metaphysical theories purely on a speculative basis 'beaten out by logic' and depending upon so-called self-evident truths.

Conclusions reached on such a basis may be deductively valid or invalid, but in the light of experience be true or false.

The attempt to determine the truths about existence based on pure deductive argument following the mathematical method of reasoning came to be discredited in the Western world only after the ascendancy of the natural sciences. Prof. Jayatilleke's investigations brought to light the fact that very early in the history of human thought the Buddha had quite convincingly shown the barrenness of pure rational metaphysics.

In accordance with Prof. Jayatilleke's view that Buddhism can be viewed from the perspective of all the major branches of philosophy such as epistemology, logic, ethics and social and political philosophy, he ventured into a clarification of Buddhist insights in these areas as well in addition to his contribution to Buddhist epistemology in his major work Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge.

Special mention may be made of Buddhism and the Race Question and the Principles of International Law in Buddhist Doctrine. By these researches Prof. Jayatilleke refuted the view that Buddhism is merely a 'life denying' 'salvation doctrine' that has no relevance to social concerns and satisfactory living in this world.

In his analysis of the social philosophy of Buddhism he opened up many new avenues of thought that could lead future researches in many rewarding directions in the application of Buddhist teachings in the resolution of current social, economic and political problems, which unfortunately, may not have been yet fully exploited.

The few writings produced by Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke on ethics are also worth recognition. For the first time in Buddhist scholarship Prof. Jayatilleke adopted the methods known in contemporary philosophical analysis to understand and interpret the Buddhist ethical system.

He raised fundamental philosophical questions such as whether Buddhist ethics can be interpreted from the perspective of an objectivist, subjectivist or a relativistic theory of ethics. He has argued for a qualified objectivism in Buddhist ethics showing that the role of emotion in moral judgements has been recognized in the Buddha's teachings as well, like in some of the more insightful analyses made in the recent metaethical theories of the West. However, he refrained from interpreting Buddhist ethics as subscribing to an extreme form of subjectivism, emotivism or relativism.

Apart from Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke's academic contributions in the form of scholarly publications, it is necessary to mention the tremendous impact that his presence made in the academic life of the Peradeniya University in the 1960s. Prof. Jayatilleke was in the forefront of all activities connected with the dissemination of knowledge relating to Buddhism and philosophy among a wider university community not confined to the limited sphere of his classroom pupils. Public lectures and debates on many intellectually controversial topics such as 'Scientific Evidence of Rebirth', 'Buddhism and Marxism' were held under his leadership with the participation of well-known professors such as E.R. Sarachchandra and Doric de Souza at which Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke made a great intellectual impact on the audience. Most contemporaries no doubt cherish vivid memories of those extremely illuminating intellectual discussions.

It was unfortunate that the untimely demise of Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke occurred at the intellectually most productive period of his life.

Perhaps his over-exertion in intellectual pursuits and in the involvement in the then current social issues resulting in less concern for his personal health contributed to the early loss of his life. However, the contribution he made to Buddhist scholarship during his comparatively short life span is undoubtedly far beyond expectations.