Persona Classification Layer
Compare Personas
Pick two or more historical figures to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension evidence, and shared school influences side by side.
Dharmakirti
Perception and inference are the only valid means of knowledge — the most rigorous Buddhist epistemology, dismantling Brahmanical authority and the permanent self
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where personas disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid (32 attributes) is shown.
| Attribute | Dharmakirti |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Discrete |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Fallible |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | Rational |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each persona's writings reveal about their stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Dharmakirti
Infinite — the cycle of samsara has no beginning. Time is relational and discrete: Dharmakirti's doctrine of momentariness (ksanikavada) holds that each moment is a distinct, real event; there are no enduring substances across moments. Deterministic: each moment is caused by the preceding moment through strict causal regularity (niyama); there is no room for uncaused events or libertarian free will.
Space
Dharmakirti
Infinite and relational. Space, like time, is constituted by the relations among momentary dharmas. Local: causal efficacy requires spatiotemporal contiguity.
Matter
Dharmakirti
Finite, emergent, non-conserved. Material objects are conventional designations for streams of momentary events. Nothing endures across moments; hence "conservation" does not apply. Matter is emergent — it appears as a construction from more basic momentary constituents.
Observer
Dharmakirti
Embodied, single-instance, active. The observer is a stream of momentary cognitive events, not a permanent self. Knowledge is immediate in perception (pratyaksha) but fallible in inference (subject to logical error). Active agency: the philosopher must rigorously investigate the means of valid cognition. No metaphysical agency: there is no creator God or cosmic self.
Energy
Dharmakirti
Unaddressed in modern terms. Dharmakirti's causal theory is a theory of momentary causal efficacy (arthakriya), not a theory of conserved energy. Relational: causal power is a feature of the momentary particular, not a substance that persists.
Information
Dharmakirti
Relational and non-conserved. Knowledge is a momentary cognitive event that arises and perishes. There is no permanent knower who retains knowledge across moments. The apoha theory treats conceptual content as negative (exclusion of the other) rather than a positive substance. Personal information is non-conserved because there is no permanent self to conserve it.
Internal Tensions
Where each persona's working synthesis strains against itself.
Dharmakirti's central tension is between his radical momentariness — nothing endures across moments — and the practical requirements of his own system. If each moment is entirely distinct, how can inference, which connects premises to conclusions across time, be valid? How can the Buddha's authority, established in the past, ground present practice? His theory of "natural connection" (svabhavapratibandha) between reason and conclusion is meant to solve this, but critics (Kumarila Bhatta, Udayana) argued it was parasitic on the very enduring universals he denied. The apoha theory of meaning faces the objection that exclusion presupposes the positive entities being excluded.