Finger, die auf den Mond zeigen

“Finger, die auf den Mond zeigen” (Fingers pointing to the moon) contains a detailed comparison of two theories of language having emerged from very different scientific traditions: on the one hand, the European tradition and the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on the other. Thus, the study provides an unusual case of comparative linguistics. The works being compared are the theoretical scriptures of de Saussure (“Cours de linguistique générale”, notes from his estate) and the “Tshad ma rigs gter” (Treasury of Logic on Valid Cognition), a canonical text of Buddhist theory of language, written by the Tibetan 13th Century scholar, Sakya Pandita. The result is quite amazing. The two theories are in many ways identical. This concerns both the semiotic foundations and the theory of language as a system of negative-defined values. Furthermore, both Saussure and Sakya Pandita draw the same radical conclusions from their theories: the linguistic sign is but an abstract or intellectual construct, and ultimately non-existent.
It turns out, that Saussure’s ideas, being revolutionary in the context of the 20th Century, have been contained for centuries in the Buddhist theory of language, and in essence date back to the beginning　of the Buddhist theory of knowledge in the 6th Century A.D. This study reveals that the ancient Buddhist theory of language is surprisingly modern. The work of Saussure, however, shows more than ever its philosophical character.