Notes: Nyaya & Vaisesika (Part I)

I. Introduction

Nyaya: Basics

The Nyaya is the work of the great philosopher and sage Gautama.

Realistic philosophy based mainly on logical grounds.

Admits four separate sources of true knowledge:

·         Perception (pratyaksa): direct knowledge of objects produced by their relation to our senses

·         inference (anumana): Inference is the knowledge of objects not through perception but through the apprehension of some mark

·         comparison (upamana): Comparison is the knowledge of the relation between a name and things so named on the basis of a given description of their similarity to some familiar object.

·         testimony (sabda): Testimony is the knowledge about anything derived from the statements of authoritative persons.

Objects of knowledge are the self, the body, the senses and their objects, cognition (buddhi), mind (manas), activity (pravritti), mental defects (dosa) rebirth (pretyabhava), the feeling of pleasure and pain (phala), suffering (dukkha), and freedom from suffering (apavarga).

Seeks to deliver the self from its bondage to the body, the senses and their objects.

Self is distinct from the body and the mind. The body is only a composite substance made of matter.

The mind is a subtle, indivisible and eternal substance. Serves the soul as an instrument for the perception of psychic qualities like pleasure, pain, etc: called an internal sense.

Self (atman) is another substance distinct from the mind and the body.

Liberation (apavarga) means the absolute cessation of all pain and suffering brought about by the right knowledge of reality (tattva jnana). Liberation is only release from pain.

Existence of God is proved by the Nyaya by several arguments.

God is the ultimate cause of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the world.

God did not create the world out of nothing, but out of eternal atoms, space, time, ether, minds and souls.

Vaisesika: Basics

Vaisesika was founded by the philosopher and the sage Kanada.

Vaisesika is allied to the Nyaya system and has the same end view, namely, the liberation of the individual self.

Brings all objects of knowledge, the whole world, under the seven categories of substance

(dravya), quality (guna), action (karma), generality (samanya), particularity (visesa), the relation of inherence (samavaya), and non-existence (abhava).

·         Substance (dravya) is the substratum of qualities and activities, but is different from both.

·         Quality (guna) is that which exists in a substance and has itself no quality or activity.

·         Action (karma) is a movement.

·         Particularity (visesa) is the ground of the ultimate differences of things.

·         Inherence is the permanent or eternal relation by which a whole is in its parts; a quality or an action is in a substance; the universal is in the particulars.

·         Non-existence stands for all negative facts.

With regard to God and liberation of the individual soul the Vaisesika theory is substantially the same as that of the Nyaya.

II. Nyaya & Vaisesika

Nyaya is a system of atomic pluralism and logical realism.

Allied to the Vaisesika system which is regarded as ‘Samanatantra or similar philosophy.

Darshana	Philosophy Areas	Philosophy Areas
Nyaya	Logic	Epistemology
Vaisesika	Metaphysics	Ontology

           

Commonality in Nyaya & Vaisesika

Both agree:

·         Earthly life as full of suffering, as bondage of the soul; liberation is absolute cessation of suffering as the supreme end of life.

·         Bondage is due to ignorance of reality and that liberation is due to right knowledge of reality. Vaisesika exposits eality and Nyaya mostly accepts the Vaisesika metaphysics.

Points of Difference between Nyaya & Vaisesika

Aspects	Vaisesika	Nyaya
Categories	Seven categories	Sixteen categories, including seven from vaisesika
Pramanas	Two- perception & inference	Four- perception, inference, comparison and verbal authority of vedas)
Comparison & verbal authority	Parts of inference	Separate source of knowledge

III. Nyaya Theory of Knowledge

What is Knowledge?

Knowledge or Cognition is defined as apprehension or consciousness.

Nyaya believes that knowledge reveals both the subject and the object; they are quite distinct from knowledge.

All knowledge is a revelation or manifestation of objects. Just as a lamp manifests physical things placed before it, so knowledge reveals all objects which come before it.

Valid & Invalid Knowledge

Knowledge may be valid or invalid.

Valid knowledge

Valid knowledge is defined as the right apprehension of an object. It is the manifestation of an object as it is. Knowledge in order to be valid, must correspond to reality.

Nyaya maintains the theory of correspondence (paratah pramanya).

Valid knowledge is produced by the four valid means of knowledge-perception, inference, comparison and testimony.

Perception: Sage Gotama defines perception as non-erroneous cognition produced by the intercourse of the sense-organs with the objects; it is not associated with a name and which is well-defined.

Inference is defines as that cognition which presupposes some other cognition. Inference is mediate and indirect.

Comparison defined as the knowledge of the relation between a word and its denotation. It is produce by the knowledge of resemblance or similarity.

Verbal testimony is defined as the statement of a trustworthy person and consists in understanding its meaning.

Invalid knowledge

Invalid knowledge includes memory (smrti), doubt (samshaya), error (viparyaya) and hypothetical reasoning (tarka).

Memory is not valid because it is not present cognition but a represented one.

The object remembered is not directly presented to the soul, but only indirectly recalled. Doubt is uncertainty in cognition.

Error

Error is misapprehension as it does not correspond to the real object. Hypothetical reasoning is no real knowledge.

IV. Nyaya Theory of Causation

Cause & Essentials

A cause is defined as an unconditional and invariable antecedent of an effect. The same cause produces the same effect and the same effect is produced by the same cause. Plurality of cause is ruled out.

Essential characters of cause:

·         Antecedence: cause should precede the effect.

·         Invariability: Must invariably precede the effect.

·         Unconditionality or necessity: must unconditionally precede the effect.

Accidental Antecedents

Recognizes five kinds of accidental antecedents which are not real causes.

1.      Qualities of a cause are mere accidental antecedents. The color of a potter’s staff is not the cause of a pot.

2.      Cause of a cause or a remote cause is not unconditional. The potter’s father is not the cause of a pot.

3.      Co-effects of a cause are themselves not causally related. Sound produced by the potter’s staff is not the cause of a pot, though it may invariably precede the pot. Night and day are not causally related.

4.      Eternal substances like space are not unconditional antecedents.

5.      Unnecessary things are not unconditional antecedents; though the potter’s ass may be invariably present when the potter is making a pot, yet it is not the cause of the pot

Sequence View of Cause

A cause must be an unconditional and necessary antecedent. Nyaya emphasizes the sequence view of causality. Cause and effect are never simultaneous.

No Plurality of Causes

Plurality of causes is also wrong because causal relation is reciprocal. The same effect cannot be produced by another cause. Each effect has its distinctive features and has only one specific cause.

Effect: Destruction of Prior Non-Existence

An effect is defined as the counter-entity of its own prior non-existence. It is the negation of its own prior negation. It comes into being and destroys its prior non-existence. It was non-existent before its production. It did not pre-exist in its cause. It is a fresh beginning, a new creation.

V. Nyaya Theory of the Physical World

Constituents of the Physical World

Four Physical Substances

The physical world is constituted by the four physical substances: earth, water, fire and air.

Ultimate constituents of these four substances are the eternal and unchanging atoms of earth, water, fire and air.

Eternal & Infinite Substances

Akasa or ether, kala or time, and dik or space is eternal and infinite substances, each being one single whole.

Thus the physical world is the product of the four kinds of atoms of earth, water, fire and air. It contains all the composite products of these atoms, and their qualities and relations, including organic bodies, the senses, and the sensible qualities of things.

Objects of Knowledge: Non-Physical World

According to Gautama the objects of knowledge:

·         the self,

·         the body,

·         the senses and their objects,

·         knowledge,

·         mind,

·         activity,

·         the mental imperfections,

·         rebirth,

·         feelings of pleasure and pain,

·         suffering,

·         absolute freedom from all suffering.

are not to be found in the physical world, because it includes only those objects that either physical or somehow belong to the world of physical nature.

Note the self, its attribute of knowledge and manas are not at all physical.

But time and space are two substances which although different from the physical substances, yet somehow belong to the physical world.

Akasa is a physical substance which is not a productive cause of anything.

VI. Nyaya Concept of God

God is:

·         the ultimate cause of creation, maintenance and destruction of the world.

·         the eternal infinite self who creates, maintains and destroys the world.

He does not create the world out of nothing, but out of eternal atoms, space, time, ether, minds and souls.

What is Creation?

Creation of the world means the ordering of the eternal entities, which are co-existent with God, into a moral world, in which individual selves enjoy and suffer according to the merit and demerit of their actions, and all physical objects serve as means to the moral and spiritual ends of our life.

Nature of God

·         God is the creator of the world in the sense of being the first efficient cause of the world and not its material cause.

·         He is the preserver of the world in so far as the world is kept in existence by the will of God.

·         He is the destroyer who lets loose the forces of destruction when the exigencies of the moral world require it.

·         God is one, infinite and eternal, since the world of space and time, minds and souls does not limit him, but is related to Him as a body to the self which resides in it.

·         He is omnipotent, although He is guided in His activities by moral considerations of the merit and demerit of human actions.

·         He is omniscient in so far as He possesses right knowledge of all things and events.

·         He has eternal consciousness as a power of direct and steadfast cognition of all objects.

·         Eternal consciousness is only an inseparable attribute of God, not His very essence, as maintained in the Advaita Vedanta.

·         He possesses to the full all the six perfections and is majestic, almighty, all glorious, infinitely beautiful and possessed of infinite knowledge and perfect freedom from attachment.

·         Just as God is the efficient cause of the world, so He is the directive cause of the actions of all living beings.

Arguments on Existence of God

Nyaya gives the following arguments to prove the existence of God:

1. The world is an effect and hence it must have an efficient cause. This intelligent agent is God. The order, design, co-ordination between different phenomena comes from God.

2. The atoms being essentially inactive cannot form the different combinations unless God gives motion to atoms. The Unseen Power, the Adrsta, requires the intelligence of God. Without God it cannot supply motion to the atoms.

3. The world is sustained by God’s will. Unintelligent Adrsta cannot do this. And the world is destroyed by God’s will.

4. A word has a meaning and signifies an object. The power of words to signify their objects comes from God.

5. God is the author of the infallible Veda.

6. The Veda testifies to the existence of God.

7. The Vedic sentences deal with moral injunctions and prohibitions. The Vedic commands are the Divine commands. God is the creator and promulgator of the moral laws.

8. According to Nyaya the magnitude of a dyad is not produced by the infinitesimal magnitude of the two atoms each, but by the number of the two atoms.

Number ‘one’ is directly perceived, but other numbers are conceptual creations.

Numerical conception is related to the mind of the perceiver. At the time of creation, the souls are unconscious. The atoms and the unseen Power and space, time, mind are all unconscious.  Hence the numerical conception depends upon the Divine Consciousness. So God must exist.

9. We reap the fruits of our own actions. Merit and demerit accrue from our actions and the stock of merit and demerit is called Adrsta, the unseen power. But this Unseen Power, being unintelligent, needs the guidance of a supremely intelligent God.

[This notes is prepared primarily on the basis of the IGNOU Study material on Philosophy- Ethics and certain other materials. These notes are provided here for academic reference for students. No originality, authorship or copyright to the above is being claimed.]