Nyaya and Vaisesika

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.
Four methods of knowledge(pramānas)

 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.
The meaning of these methods
 The Nyāya 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.”
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.
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.
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.
Comparison with Nyāya

 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.
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 Mendeleev’s time.
The survey method

 Mendeleev’s 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.
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 Mendeleev’s
discovery of the periodic table.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Newton’s view of gravity
 Newton viewed gravity as a
force.
Gravity as curvature
The bending of light due to gravity
Methods of knowledge

 SURVEY METHOD
 OBSERVATIONS
 CONJECTURES
 RE-INTERPRETATION
 ANALOGY
 TRANSFER OF IDEAS
 INDUCTION
 CONVERSE QUESTIONS
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”.
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.
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 moment’s 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.
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.
 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 Beatrice’s
uniqueness (perhaps a beauty spot
on its face) and finally, the unification
of all these, or coherence.
“Substance is not annihilated by effect or
cause.” – Kanada’s 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.
The adrista, or the unseen

 “The circulation of water in trees is adrista. The

sun’s 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.”
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.”
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.