Nyaya%20and%20Vaisesika

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Nyaya and Vaisesika
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Nyaya and Vaisesika

• The Nyaya system is a philosophy of logic.
  Though it was first formally written down in the
  3rd century B.C., its history extends over 20
  centuries.
• The word Nyaya literally means that by which the
  mind is led to a conclusion. We are led to
  conclusions by reason and argument.
• The popular usage of nyaya is right or just
  and so Nyaya as a system has come to mean the
  science of correct reasoning.

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Four methods of knowledge(pramanas)

• According to Nyaya, there are four methods of
  gaining knowledge. They are direct perception
  (pratyaksa), inference (anumana), analogy or
  comparisons (upamana) and verbal knowledge or
  testimony (sabda).
• Not only are these methods of gaining knowledge
  but also methods for discovering new knowledge.

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The meaning of these methods

• The Nyaya Sutras define each of these methods as
  follows.
• Perception is that knowledge which arises from
  the contact of a sense with its object, and which
  is determinate well-defined, unnameable not
  expressible in words, and non-erratic
  unerring.
• Inference is knowledge which is preceded by
  perception, and is of three kinds, viz., a
  priori, a posteriori and commonly seen.
• Comparison analogy is the knowledge of a thing
  through its similarity to another thing
  previously well-known.
• Word (verbal testimony) is the instructive
  assertion of a reliable person.

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Here is an example

• Suppose we see billowing smoke on the hill. This
  is visual perception and we know there is smoke
  on the hill.
• We infer that the smoke is caused by fire and
  conclude that there is a fire on the hill. This
  is knowledge by inference.
• The hill is shaped like a pyramid. This is
  knowledge of the shape of the hill through
  comparison or analogy.
• Historical texts say that the hill has been there
  for the last five centuries. This is knowledge
  of the age of the hill from reliable verbal
  testimony.

By contrast, Vaisesika accepts only the first two
methods of knowledge perception and inference.
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Verbal knowledge (sabda)

• This refers to any method of transmitting
  knowledge, either by oral or written tradition.
• It is also a method for generating new knowledge.
  When we take up old writings and try to organize
  them, question them, analyze them, we are adding
  to knowledge.
• This is essentially the role of the scholar.
• A spectacular example of how organization of past
  knowledge leads to new knowledge is given by the
  discovery of the periodic table.

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The art of scientific research

• The art of research is really the art of asking
  good questions.
• How to generate good questions?
• These were survey of relevant literature,
  observation of patterns, conjecturing theorems,
  re-interpretation of existing theorems, finding
  analogies, transferring ideas from one area to
  another, induction and checking converse
  propositions.

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Comparison with Nyaya

• Indeed, the method of survey is part of verbal
  knowledge.
• Observation is part of direct perception.
• Conjecture, induction, checking converse
  propositions are part of the process of
  inference.
• Finding analogies and transferring ideas are part
  of the process of analogy.
• Finally, re-interpretation is a combination of
  direct perception and inference.

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The periodic table

• In 1859, Dimitri Mendeleev was 25 and was a poor
  school teacher in Siberia. The knowledge of
  chemistry was meager at the time and the natural
  elements were slowly being classified. Mendeleev
  decided to organize the elements according to
  their properties and atomic number, that is, the
  number of protons in the nucleus.
• As he began to place the elements in the columns,
  he discovered a periodicity in their properties
  and could correlate them to their atomic number.
  
• Mendeleev had stumbled on a mathematical key to
  the chemical elements. It was a Eureka moment.
  Only 63 elements of the 92 natural elements were
  known at Mendeleevs time.

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The survey method

• Mendeleevs discovery organizes past knowledge by
  using analogies based on careful observations.
  Thus, direct perception (pratyaksa), analogy
  (upamana) and past knowledge (sabda) are all
  involved.
• What is brilliant about it is the gaps in the
  table that point to new elements. This is the
  method of inference (anumana).
• Thus, his work involves several methods of
  gaining knowledge survey, observations,
  conjectures, and analogies.

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Observations and conjectures

• In the survey method, we make careful
  observations. This itself leads to new knowledge
  and suggests patterns.
• The patterns lead us to make conjectures and
  hypotheses to explain these patterns.
• All of these are involved in Mendeleevs
  discovery of the periodic table.

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Analogy and transfer

• The method of analogy also suggests another
  method for generating knowledge and that is the
  method of transfer.
• What does this mean? A superb example is given
  by the Doppler effect.
• We all know that if we are standing on a railway
  platform, the sound pitch of an approaching train
  is different from the sound pitch of a departing
  train. This is because sound waves coming toward
  you are compressed and those moving away are
  stretched.
• Doppler had the idea to transfer this idea to
  astronomy. The color pitch of stars that are
  moving towards us should be different from the
  color pitch of those moving away from us. This
  is known as the Doppler effect.

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Inference and induction

• Inference as a method of discovering new
  knowledge can also be codified as the principle
  of induction in mathematics.
• If we have a sequence of dominoes, and the first
  one falls, and whenever a domino falls, its
  neighbor also falls, then we conclude that all of
  them fall.

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The converse question

• If A implies B, does B imply A? This is called
  the converse question.
• In 1813, Oersted observed that an electric
  current produces a magnetic field.
• This led Michael Faraday to ask if the converse
  is true. Does a magnetic field produce an
  electric current.
• He devised an experiment to show that this is the
  case and thus discovered electromagnetism.

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Reinterpretation

• This is a way of gaining new knowledge where we
  re-interpret something that is well-known in a
  new way.
• An excellent example is gravitation.

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Newtons view of gravity

• Newton viewed gravity as a force.

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Gravity as curvature
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The bending of light due to gravity
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Methods of knowledge

• SURVEY METHOD
• OBSERVATIONS
• CONJECTURES
• RE-INTERPRETATION
• ANALOGY
• TRANSFER OF IDEAS
• INDUCTION
• CONVERSE QUESTIONS

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Vaisesika

• Vaisesika, created by Kanada (also referred to as
  Kashyapa), around 300 B.C. E.
• The system derives its name from visesa which
  means particularity.
• It can be viewed as a system of physics and
  metaphysics in that it tries to explain the
  fundamental nature of the world and being.
• It is non-theistic in that it does not mention
  God, but later commentators felt atoms by
  themselves could not have produced this universe
  and so there must have been a first cause.

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Vaisesika as an atomic theory

• This is an early attempt at the scientific
  method.
• The word science can be traced back to two
  Latin words, scire, meaning to know and
  scindere, meaning to cut, to dissect, to
  analyze, to take apart.
• By contrast, the word religion is derived from
  religio meaning to bind, to unify, to put
  together.
• Thus from an etymological perspective, religion
  and science seem to be opposites. However, on
  closer examination, we see that science refers to
  analysis and religion refers to synthesis.
• Both are needed for an understanding of ourselves
  and the world around us. This is the view of
  Vaisesika. We must examine the world by
  subdivision, refining the component parts but at
  the same time perceive the whole together with
  the components.

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Emil Artin on mathematics

• We all believe mathematics is an art. The
  author of a book, the lecturer in the classroom
  tries to convey the structural beauty of
  mathematics, to his readers, to his listeners.
  In this attempt, he must always fail.
  Mathematics is logical, to be sure, each
  conclusion drawn from previously derived
  statements. Yet the whole of it, the real piece
  of art, is not linear worse than that, its
  perceptions should be instantaneous. We all have
  experienced on some rare occasions the feeling of
  elation in realizing that we have enabled our
  listeners to see at a moments glance the whole
  architecture and all its ramifications.
• In Vaisesika, the term samavaaya is used for
  coherence, or the instantaneous perceptions of
  the whole that Artin refers to in the above
  passage.

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Padarthas or categories

• There are six categories or padarthas dravya
  (substance), guna (quality), karma (action),
  samanya (that which constitutes a genus), visesha
  (uniqueness or individuality), and finally,
  samavaaya (coherence).
• Each of these is again subdivided into further
  sub-categories. We indicate two such
  sub-divisions.
• Substance is divided into nine sub-categories
  earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space,
  self and mind.
• The substances cannot exist without qualities of
  which there are 17 color, taste, smell, touch,
  number, extension, quantity, individuality,
  conjunction, priority, posteriority, thought,
  pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, and will.
• The substances are affected by 5 kinds of action
  upward motion, downward motion, contraction,
  expansion and movement from one spot to another.
  
• The first four qualities, namely, color, taste,
  smell and touch are made up of invisible atoms
  which have no dimension.

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Six-fold view of perception

• Recall that the Nyaya school gave us a three-fold
  view of perception, namely, word, shape and
  genus. Vaisesika gives a six-fold view.
• This is best illustrated by an example. Consider
  Beatrice, the cow.
• When we see Beatrice, we see a cow (substance).
  We observe its color and shape (quality). We see
  it grazing (action). We are also aware that
  Beatrice is a member of a larger family (genus)
  of cows, at the same time, we are aware of
  Beatrices uniqueness (perhaps a beauty spot on
  its face) and finally, the unification of all
  these, or coherence.

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Substance is not annihilated by effect or
cause. Kanadas Vaisesika

• Here, the point is that matter is indestructible
  at the atomic level.
• After expounding on the theory of cause and
  effect, Vaisesika proceeds to the manifold
  aspects of matter together with a detailed
  discussion of its qualities.
• From this, it deduces the existence of mind.
• The appearance and non-appearance of knowledge,
  on contact with the senses and the objects are
  marks of the existence of the mind.
• In a remarkable verse, it deduces there is only
  one mind. From the non-simultaneity of
  volitions, and from the non-simultaneity of
  cognitions, it follows that there is only one
  mind in each organism.
• After this, the treatise deduces the existence of
  the self or atman from the action of the life
  breath.

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The adrista, or the unseen

• The circulation of water in trees is adrista.
  The suns rays and their action on convection of
  wind is adrista. The action of air and fire is
  explained by the action of the earth. The action
  of mind is explained by the action of the hand.
• Finally, in verses that seem to echo the Gita, it
  says, Pleasure and pain result from the contact
  of the self, senses, mind and object.
  Non-origination of that follows on the mind
  becoming steady in the self. After that, there
  is non-existence of pain in the embodied self.
  This is that yoga.

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Difficulties in Vaisesika

• Even though everything has been reduced to atoms,
  the treatise finds itself in a quandary. Where
  does the knowledge of the combinations of atoms
  reside? This is its ultimate question.
• Unique particularities reside in the ultimate
  substances. They are the factors that make for
  ultimate distinctions among these substances.
• Another difficulty is that time, space, atman and
  manas are all classified under substance.
  Several chapters are devoted to discuss the
  nature of time and space. Finally, it presents
  the argument from design.
• As from the motion of the chariot, we infer the
  existence of an intelligent guiding agent in the
  shape of the charioteer, so also we infer an
  intelligent guiding agent for the body the
  agent is inferred from the action of breathing
  from the fact that wounds of the body being
  healed up, we infer the existence of the agent
  who would be like the master of a house repairing
  it.

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The important aspects of Vaisesika

• Minute detail is given to the working out of
  abstract concepts.
• A whole chapter is devoted to the concept of a
  number and how the mind apprehends such an idea.
  For example, 1017 occurs in the text.
• The number of stars in the observable universe is
  about 1022.
• It represents the beginning of the scientific
  method of analysis and synthesis.
• This attitude was expanded and amplified in later
  systems, as we shall see.