Sonam Thakchoe
Sonam Thakchoe is a Senior Philosophy Lecturer in the School of Humanities. He teaches Asian philosophy, coordinates the Asian Philosophy Program and directs the Tasmanian Buddhist Studies in India Exchange Program. His research specialisation is in Indo-Tibetan philosophy, with a particular focus on ontology, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind, Buddhist phenomenology. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Tasmanian in 2003.
less
InterestsView All (10)
Uploads
Papers by Sonam Thakchoe
The Sakya scholar Taktsang Lotsawa (born 1405) published the first systematic critique of Tsongkhapa's system. In the fifth chapter of his Freedom from Extremes Accomplished through Comprehensive Knowledge of Philosophy, Taktsang attacks Tsongkhapa's understanding of Candrakirti and the cogency of integrating Prasangika Madhyamaka with any epistemology. This attack launches a debate between Geluk scholars on the one hand and Sakya and Kagyu scholars on the other regarding the proper understanding of this philosophical school and the place of epistemology in the Madhyamaka program. This debate raged with great ferocity from the 15th through the 18th centuries, and continues still today.
The two volumes of Knowing Illusion study that debate and present translations of the most important texts produced in that context. Volume I: A Philosophical History of the Debate provides historical and philosophical background for this dispute and elucidates the philosophical issues at stake in the debate, exploring the principal arguments advanced by the principals on both sides, and setting them in historical context. This volume examines the ways in which the debate raises issues that are relevant to contemporary debates in epistemology, and concludes with two contributions by contemporary Tibetan scholars, one on each side of the debate.