- Lived:
- c. 900–980 CE · Mithilā, in what is now northern Bihar, India (dates contested)
- Tradition:
- Classical Hindu philosophy — all six orthodox schools of it, which is precisely the point
- The Big Idea:
- The deepest philosophical talent may not be building your own system but understanding everyone else's — so completely that each rival school claims your work as its own classic.
- In their words:
- "An objection is not answered until it has first been stated so well that its own defenders would accept the statement." (A plain rendering of the working principle visible on every page he wrote.)
- If you remember one thing:
- Six rival Indian traditions, which agree on almost nothing else, agree on this: the commentary you must read is Vācaspati's. Tradition crowned him sarva-tantra-svatantra — master of every system, independent in each.