Philosopher
Chapa Chökyi Sengé
1109–1169
Also known as Chapa, Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge
Tibetan epistemologist of the Ngok tradition who rejected both idealism and representationalism, and whose account of the objects of cognition shaped later Gelug thought.
Chapa Chökyi Sengé was one of the most influential successors of Ngok Loden Sherab in the ‘Ngok tradition’, which led Tibetan epistemology in the period before Sakya Paṇḍita. With Tsang Nakpa he set interpretative milestones for that tradition.
Later Gelug thinkers, who took seriously the problem of the time gap between object and cognition, adopted a causal model of perception but largely kept Chapa’s classification of objects.
Key ideas
- Neither idealism nor representation
- Chapa refuted both the idealist model and the Sautrāntika model of an external world known through representations, settling for a position close to the Vaibhāṣika.
- What appears is what is apprehended
- The object that appears in cognition and the object that cognition apprehends are one and the same; this amounts to a disjunctivist, externalist account of perception.
- The engaged object
- The object one engages with is the object about which contrary superimpositions have been eliminated. Later Gelug authors kept his typology of the objects of cognition.
- Tradition
- Tibetan
- Region
- Tibet
- Period
- Later Diffusion
- Themes
- Knowledge and scepticism
Influences
Influenced by
Chapa Chökyi Sengé1109–1169
Influenced
Influenced by
Chapa Chökyi Sengé1109–1169
Influenced
Where these links come from
- Chapa Chökyi Sengé drew on Ngok Loden Sherab. Source: Pascale Hugon, Tibetan Epistemology and Philosophy of Language, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Sakya Paṇḍita argued against Chapa Chökyi Sengé. Source: Pascale Hugon, Tibetan Epistemology and Philosophy of Language, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Sources
- Pascale Hugon, Tibetan Epistemology and Philosophy of Language, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy