Epistemological negative dialectics of Indian logic —abhāvaversusanupalabdhi
✍ Scribed by Dhirendra Sharma
- Publisher
- Brill
- Year
- 1966
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 562 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0019-7246
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The problem of negation is primarily an epistemological one: How do we know the absence of a thing? On this question the indian LogiO is divided into two main groups: the Realist and the Idealist. The former consists of the systems in which the absence (abh6va) is conceived as a real non-entity (paddrtha) and as such is a real object of its corresponding negative cognition (abhdvadhi). In spite of certain differences the Ny~ya-Vaige.sika and the Bh~.tta-Mim~ .msg systems belong to this group.
The second group comprises of the later Buddhist logicians led by Dharmakirti and the Pr~bhgkara-Mim~.ms~ thinkers who reject the objectivity ascribed to 'abh~va' by the Realists. According to the idealists negation is an inferential judgment and as such the cognition of absence of a thing is only a logical synthesis (vikalpa). Absence of a perceptible thing (dr@a) is inferred from its non-perception (anupalabdhi) and from the perception of something else, namely, the bare locus (bhf~talamdtra).
The suggestion of the perception or the presence of the thing negated remains as an imposed ideal situation (d.rdyatvabuddhau samaropdt). Now the question is: Can Negation be an independent means of knowledge (pramdn. a)? ~ The view that it is an independent means seems to be very old. According to the Bhd.sya of Pra~astapgda the Vaige.sika Satra (IX.i.5.) rejects the view of the negative means: In the Nydya t The present investigation will be limited to the Buddhist and the Bh~ta-Mimar0s~ systems of Indian Philosophy. 2 The term 'pramh.na' is not well defined in Indian logical writings. It is used in the sense of either (a) the means of knowledge, or (b) the form of cognition, or (c) the means of proof. (Cf. Ganganath Jha, Sadholal Lectures, p. 28.) Here the term will be used in the first sense. It should also be noted that the term 'Negation' will be used to express Kumfirila Bha~a's theory of 'abhava-pramaoa', 'Non-opprehension' for the later BhaIIa's theory of 'yogyanupalabdhi', and 'Non-perception' for the Buddhist theory 'd.r~y~mupalabdhi'. However, in quotations of modern writers they may occur as synonyms. 8 Padarthadharma-sa~graha, ed. Vindhyeshvariprasad Dvivedin (with Ny~yakandali of ~ridhara) (Vizianagram Sanskrit Series) (Banares, 1895), p. 225.