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The Syadvada System of Predication 131
a substance which is tated as bitter when concentrated cannot be distinguished from water when it is diluted. Some experimenters order their subjects to answer "yes" or "no" to the question "Is this illuminated ?", or "Is this bitter ?" If the experimenter is interested in the psychology of perception he will permit the subject also to answer "It is uncertain", or some equivalent phrase. The objection to this is that some subjects may do so over a wide range of intensities.
Now consider a subject who is shown a series of illuminated patches, some above his threshold of perception, some below it, and others very close to it, in a randomised series. We will suppose that he is in a steady state of sensory adaptation, that he replies in Sanskrit and that he is aware that his answers wili sometimes be incorrect. At any given trial he will answer "syadasti", "syadavaktavyah", or "syatnasti". After the second trial of a light of an intensity near the threshold he may have given two of these answers, for example "syatnasti ca avaktavyasca". After the third he may have given all three, though this is not very probable. The possibilities may be schematised as follows:
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