The Buddhist idea of two “truths” (Pāli:
sacca
; Sanskrit:
satya
) refers to the idea that there is a “conventional” (Pāli:
sammuti
; Sanskrit:
saṃvṛti
) truth that must be distinguished from the “ultimate” (Pāli:
paramattha
; Sanskrit:
paramārtha
) truth. The two truths distinction may have emerged initially as a hermeneutic device which later interpreters employed to reconcile apparent inconsistencies among statements in the Buddhist scriptures. The two truths doctrine nevertheless came to hold a central philosophical position in Buddhist semantics, ontology, epistemology, and soteriology in the majority of philosophical schools including Theravāda, Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, and Madhyamaka.