David J. Kalupahana (1936–2014) was a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

scholar from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was a student of the late K.N. Jayatilleke, who was a student of

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

. He wrote mainly about

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

, theory of language, and compared later Buddhist philosophical texts against the earliest texts and tried to present interpretations that were both historically contextualised and also compatible with the earliest texts, and in doing so, he encouraged Theravada Buddhists and scholars to reevaluate the legitimacy of later, Mahayana texts and consider them more sympathetically.

Biography

Born in

Galle District Galle ( ''gālla distrikkaya''; ''Kāli māvattam'') is a Districts of Sri Lanka, district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the co ...

, Southern

, Kalupahana attended Mahinda College,

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

for his school education. He obtained his BA (Sri Lanka, 1959), Ph.D (London), and D. Litt (Hon. Peradeniya, Sri Lanka). He was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. He was assistant lecturer in Pali and Buddhist Civilization at the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univ ...

, and studied Chinese and Tibetan at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

where he completed a Ph.D. dissertation on the problem of causality in the Pali Nikayas and Chinese

Agamas Religion *Āgama (Buddhism), a collection of Early Buddhist texts *Āgama (Hinduism), scriptures of several Hindu sects *Jain literature (Jain Āgamas), various canonical scriptures in Jainism Other uses * ''Agama'' (lizard), a genus of lizards ...

in 1966. He left the

(1972) to join the

, serving as the Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Chairman of the Graduate Field in Philosophy (1974–80). He directed international intra-religious conferences on Buddhism, and on Buddhism and Peace. Many of his books are published and widely available in India (by Motilal Banarsidass and others), and therefore presumably have a fairly significant influence on the fields of Buddhism and Buddhist Studies in India and other nearby South Asian countries, such as his native Sri Lanka.

Publications

*''Mulamadhyamakakarika of Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way'', , published Motilal Barnasidass, 1991. *''A History Of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities And Discontinuities'' *''A Path Of Righteousness: Dhammapada'' *''Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis''. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1976. *''Buddhist Thought And Ritual'' *''Causality: The Central Philosophy Of Buddhism'' *''Ethics In Early Buddhism'' *''The Buddha And The Concept Of Peace'' *''The Buddha’s Philosophy Of Language'' *''The Principles Of Buddhist Psychology'' *''The Way Of Siddhartha'' *''Nagarjuna's Moral Philosophy and Sinhala Buddhism'' *''A Sourcebook Of Early Buddhist Philosophy'' *''A Sourcebook Of Later Buddhist Philosophy'' *''The Wheel Of Morals Dhamma - Cakka''

References

External links

Richard K. Payne: Early Buddhism: A conversation with David J. Kalupahana
Buddhist apologists Sri Lankan philosophers Sri Lankan scholars of Buddhism Alumni of the University of Peradeniya University of Hawaiʻi faculty 1936 births 2014 deaths Alumni of Mahinda College Sri Lankan academics Academics from Galle {{reli-philo-bio-stub

Biography

Publications

References

Further reading

External links