1st Edition
Nyāya Sūtra – on Philosophical Method Sanskrit Text, Translation, and Commentary
Nyāya Sūtra offers a new English translation of the text ascribed to Akṣapāda, an Indian philosopher who lived around the beginning of the Common Era. The translation is accompanied by the original Sanskrit text and an original commentary.
The commentary explains every sūtra separately and identifies the sources of the Nyāya Sūtra. It analyses the way older ideas on epistemology, logic, and soteriology were presented as a new coherent system of thought. The book puts forward the main goal of the Nyāya Sūtra: to define what it considered the basic tenets of a soteriology and how the goal of this soteriology could be reached by rationally applying epistemological and logical methods to finding out the truth. In turn, this truth was thought to lead to the ultimate soteriological goal of freedom from suffering. Showing the coherence of the text and its ultimate goal being soteriological, the new commentary also discusses many scholarly issues regarding the Nyāya Sūtra and its position in the history of Indian philosophy.
This book will be of interest to researchers studying Indian philosophy, world philosophies, epistemology, logic, philosophical method, art of debate, soteriology, rationalism, spirituality, Hinduism, Indian religions, and religious studies.
Introduction 1
Chapter 1a 11
The use 11
Means of valid cognition 13
Objects worth knowing 16
On the method, first part 21
Established tenets 23
The method defined 25
Further parts of the method 33
Chapter 1b 36
Verbalised forms 36
Fallacious reasons 37
Deliberate misinterpretation 39
General inferential mistakes 42
Chapter 2a 44
Doubt 44
General characteristics of the means of valid cognition 47
Definition of perception 54
Perception is inference 57
Whole made up of parts 58
Inference 60
Present 62
Comparison 63
Statement in general 66
Statement in detail 69
Chapter 2b 73
Four means of valid cognition 73
Non-eternity of sound 78
Modifications of sound 87
Ascertaining the meaning of words 94
Chapter 3a 99
The different senses 99
The self is separate from the body 100
The organ of sight is not single 102
The self is different from the mind 104
The self is eternal 105
Physical body 109
Senses derive from the elements 110
Differences between the sense organs 115
Sense objects 119
Chapter 3b 126
Understanding is not eternal 126
Momentariness in general 131
Understanding as a quality of the self 134
Understanding springs up and comes to a final end 144
Understanding not a quality of the body 145
Mind 149
The body brought about by unseen causes 151
Chapter 4a 157
Worldly activities and moral flaws 157
Three types of moral flaws 157
Hereafter 159
The material cause is emptiness 161
The material cause is the Lord 162
Things come into being without cause 164
Refuting that everything is impermanent 165
Refuting that everything is permanent 166
Refuting that everything is totally particular 168
Refuting the emptiness of everything 170
Refuting enumerations 172
Fruits of action 174
Suffering 178
Final liberation 179
Chapter 4b 186
True knowledge 186
Parts and wholes consisting of parts 187
That which is without parts 193
Refuting the breaking up of outer objects 196
Increasing true knowledge 201
Protecting true knowledge 205
Chapter 5a 207
Fallacious indications of a true counter-position 208
Six rejoinders 213
Two rejoinders 218
Infinite regress and a generally perceived fact that is contrary 219
Non-emergence 221
Doubt 222
Subsection 222
Absence of a reason 223
Implication 224
Non-differentiation 224
What is truly possible 225
Perception 226
Non-perception 226
What is not eternal 227
What is eternal 228
Effect 229
Six positions in a fallacious debate 230
Chapter 5b 234
Five grounds for losing an argument 234
Four grounds for losing an argument 238
Three grounds for losing an argument 239
Repetitiveness 240
Inability to give an answer 241
Assenting to the opinion of the opponent 242
Unusual statements 243
Bibliography 245
Index 249
Biography
Victor A. van Bijlert was until retirement Lecturer of Indian Religions and Sanskrit, Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the author of Vedantic Hinduism in Colonial Bengal (Routledge, 2021).
