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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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on the strength of which the deduction is made. It is certainly not erratic, because no one can point to the quality of being a child of Z. residing in a girl; and it is not mistimed, because it actually resides in the child in the womb all along, including the very moment of deduction.
It is sometimes said in defence of this element of weakness in Gotama's logic that possibly he only intended to throw the burden of disproving his statements and propositions on to his opponents, but even if it be so it is a highly dangerous thing to base a logical conclusion on such slippery foundations, leaving it to some one else, if he be willing and able, to correct our errors,
The Buddhist logic, too, like the. Nyaya system, ignores the scientific vyapti, and does not hesitate to draw an inference from a homogeneous example, provided that the reason
(1) is found in paksha,
(2) and is present in sapaksha,
(3) but is not to be met with in vipaksha.
In the following syllogism:
(a) There is fire on the yonder mountain top; (b) because there is smoke on it;
(c) like the kitchen;
(d) and unlike the lake;
(e) so, therefore, there is fire on the yonder mountain top.
the mountain top yonder is paksha (the abode of the sadhya, the fact to be proved, here fire); the already observed kitchen is sapaksha (sa-like+paksha, i, e.,
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