ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces key issues concerning knowledge and our reasoning powers that occupied philosophers in classical India. For reasons to be explained below, questions about which sources of knowledge were acceptable and which forms of reasoning and procedures of debate reliably led to the truth were regarded as of paramount importance. The main ideas considered here were advanced by philosophers belonging to a number of both a-stika (affirmer) and na-stika (non-affirmer) dars´anas: principally, Nya-ya, Ca-rva-ka, Jaina and Madhyamaka (‘Middle Way’) Buddhist. Despite their differences these dars´anas were united in the conviction that ignorance is the main problem facing all sentient beings. They also shared the belief that it is a problem requiring a philosophical solution. We begin, then, with the topic of ignorance.
