About Neither one nor many

The 'neither one nor many' argument is an argument employed by different philosophers and spiritual traditions for various reasons. The argument and its permutations and antecedents, particularly the "problem of the One and the Many" as charted by McEvilley in his magnum opus, has an ancient pedigree in the lineages of both Indian philosophy and Greek philosophy. McEvilley (2002) also provides strongly persuasive arguments inferring the mutual influence and mutual iteration of the ancient Indian and Greek philosophical traditions but proffers patently inconclusive and undemonstrable evidence, the perennial bugbear of historical inquiry. The argument is a factor in the algorithmic function of the Catuskoti. In its Buddhist employ, the argument is one of a suite of arguments within the purview of Pramana and Indian logic to demonstrate and test various doctrines. Different authorities and sources provide different enumerations of these said arguments; Khenpo Yonten Gyamtso lists them thus:'diamond splinters' argument 'refutation of production of existent and nonexistent effects' 'refutation of production related to four possible alternatives' 'dependent arising' argument argument of 'neither one nor many'