Qingyang HUANG
Contract doctoral student (ED 472)
Biography
I graduated from Peking University with a B.A. in Philosophy (2020) and a MPhil in Religious Studies (2023), with my Master’ thesis entitled “mKhas grub rje on the definition of pramāṇa in Yid kyi mun sel”. My past learning and research experience in Buddhist philosophy and classical languages sparked my interest in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist epistemology, and I am now carrying out my doctoral research under the codirection of Vincent Eltschinger and Isabelle Ratié (ED 472).
Fields of research
My doctoral project delves into the theories of perceptual error put forth by Dharmakīrti (ca. 600), Prajñākaragupta (8ᵗʰ–9ᵗʰ century) and Dharmottara (740–800), considering their characteristic perspectives on perception and critiques of Brahmanical adversaries, especially the Mīmāṃsā scholar Kumārila (ca. 600–650). I shall make a critical edition and English translation of relevant sections from Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Pramāṇaviniścaya, Dharmottara’s Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā and Prajñākaragupta’s Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra. Based on this textual work, I shall investigate the compatibility of Dharmakīrti’s notion of perceptual error with his distinctive perspective on perception, explore the intricate interplay between the viewpoints of these Buddhist philosophers concerning these matters, and analyze how divergences between the stances of Buddhist and Mīmāṃsā scholars on perception and perceptual error mirror distinctions in their epistemological, metaphysical, and soteriological standpoints.
