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MATERIALISM, IDEALISM AND DUALISM IN INDIAN
PHILOSOPHY
K. K. Dixit
In Indian philosophy we come across three distinct trends of thought in connection with answering the question as to which among matter and mind (also called 'soul) is the pri. mary reality. Thus here there arose the materialist Lokāyata school which advocated the primacy of matter over mind, the idealist Vijñānavāda Buddhist school and the lot of idealist Vedānta schools which advocated the primacy of mind over matter and the rest of the schools (including the Madhvite Vedānta school) which maintained that matter and mind are two co-eternal reals; (in this classification the nihilist Šunyavāda Buddhist school constitutes a class by itself inasmuch as it repudiates the reality of matter as well as mind). It is the schools of Indian philosopby positing matter and mind as two co-eternal reals which we propose to designate 'dualist and the hope is that the proposal will meat with no serious opposition. The question worth considering is as to what contribution was made by the materialist, idealist and dualist schools of Indian philosophy towards the solution of the so many outstanding problems of philosophy in general. Let us take up the three cases one by one.
The materialist Lokāyata school vehemently contested the position that mind is an independent real - this position as advocated by the idealists as also it as advocated by the dua. lists. For according to it all that exists is made up of matter. Not that it denied the reality of the mental properties like cognition, emotion and volition but its contention was that these properties are somehow the properties of body itself. The anti-materialist philosophers retorted that if that was so
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