ABSTRACT
(313) In this Chapter we propose to examine the Buddhist attitude to reason, as employed by their opponents. This involves an investigation into the grounds on which the takkī (?) were criticized and this entails the inquiry as to who the takkī (D. I.16, etc.) or takkikā (Ud. 73) were. Were they a class of sophists who employed fallacious reasoning for destructive purposes merely to outwit their opponents in debate, without having any theories of their own? Or were they thinkers, who made a rational defence of their theories or even rational metaphysicians, who founded speculative theories on the basis of reason? Or is the word takkī (or takkikā) used in a wider sense to include and refer to both these classes of people? We shall be concerned primarily with the examination of the conception of takka- and the Buddhist criticism of it.
