[Buddha-l] A vocabulary question for Stephen and Lance (or anyoneelse)

[jkirk]

The query would be about the term in Sanskrit (speaking of the Bhagavad 
Gita).
If one types "wisdom" into the MMW dictionary online, one gets several 
glosses that might work, but it needs someone with the Skt. Gita text to 
check which particular term was used. I also tried entering "Praj~naa" and 
got nowhere.
Joanna
============================



> On Monday November 6 2006 09:58, Stephen Hodge wrote:
>> Praj~naa -- which is not "wisdom".
>
> Stephen,how do you usually translate praj~naa? I have seen it glossed as
> ni"scaya, which I have no idea how best to translate. It sometimes seems 
> to
> be the case that ni"scaya is something like strong conviction, but at 
> other
> times it seems to connote ascertainment.
>
> I take it that one can have a strong conviction that P but P be false. But 
> if
> one ascertains that P, then P must be true. (I gather that "ascertain"
> carries the same implications as "know". That is,one cannot be said to 
> know
> something that is in fact false.) So which is ni"scaya (and therefore
> praj~naa)? Does anyone here have any knowledge (or strong convictions) 
> about
> how these terms are used by Indian Buddhists?
>
>
> -- 
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> University of New Mexico
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