Contributions
Jayatilleke is best known as the author of the book Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, a piece of work that has been described as a "masterpiece", and as "an outstanding contribution to the history of Indian philosophy". This book traces the beginnings of ideas relating to the theory of knowledge in pre-Buddhist Indian thought and their development in early Buddhism. It consists of a comprehensive inquiry into the nature of knowledge and the questions relating to the means and limits of knowledge. The book attempts to work out a general methodology for answering questions that arise in the context of profound and sophisticated philosophical discussions, and attempts to show that the Buddha was an empiricist and verificationist who denied the meaningfulness of metaphysical utterances. Jayatilleke describes his book as an "attempt to uncover the epistemological foundations of Pali Canonical thought, from a new point of view and in the light of new material." His basic contentions were that early Buddhism has an empiricist outlook, gives a significant place to the analytic approach in philosophy, and does not contradict the findings of modern science. Jayatilleke was a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the teacher of the famous Buddhist scholar, David Kalupahana.
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