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Verse 19
An entity, expressible by word, possesses both the characters - existence and non-existence:
विधेयप्रतिषेध्यात्मा विशेष्यः शब्दगोचरः । साध्यधर्मो यथा हेतुरहेतुश्चाप्यपेक्षया ॥१९॥
सामान्यार्थ - विशेष्य (धर्मी या पक्ष) विधेय-रूप और प्रतिषेध्य - रूप होता है क्योंकि वह शब्द का विषय होता है। जैसे कि साध्य का धर्म अपेक्षा भेद से हेतु-रूप (साधन) भी होता है और अहेतु-रूप (असाधन) भी होता है।
The entity qualified (visesya), being expressible by word, must possess the characters existence (astitiva or vidheya affirmative) as well as non-existence (năstitva or pratiṣedhya - negative). This is akin to the fact that depending on what is to be proved of the major term (sādhya), a reason can be a legitimate middle term (hetu) and also not a legitimate middle term (ahetu).
When the hill is full of fire, smoke is a hetu, able to establish the particular attribute of the sadhya. But when the hill is full of snow, smoke is an ahetu, unable to establish the particular attribute of the sadhya. Thus, smoke has both the attributes - hetu and ahetu - depending on the attribute of the major term (sadhya) under consideration.
In the same way, an entity, expressible by word, possesses both the characters - existence and non-existence - depending on the point of view. Existence is from one point of view (substance-dravya), and non-existence from another point of view (mode - paryaya). Existence and non-existence are the qualifying attributes (viseṣana) of the entity qualified (visesya).
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