Nyaya Theory of Knowledge

SR No.: 011115
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Chateerjee
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1939
Total Pages: 440
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

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specific energy (śakti).1 According to the Samkhyas, the senses are not physical bodies like the pupil of the eye, but modifications of the subtle material principle called ahamkara. They think that a physical (bhautika) organ cannot account for the perception of distant objects. In perception the senses must function in direct contact with the objects of perception But a physical organ like the eye-pupil cannot have direct contact with an object lying at a distance or behind a glass. This is possible only if the sense organ be all-pervading in character and not a limited physical substance So the Samkhyas think that the senses are modifications of a subtle all-pervading matter (āhamkārika) and are themselves all-pervading in character.2
The Nyaya rejects both the Bauddha and the Samkhya View about the nature of the senses It agrees with the Mīmāmsă and the Vedanta in holding that the senses are neither the end-organs nor modifications of any all-pervading subtle matter According to these systems the external senses are material substances constituted by the physical elements (bhautika) and localised in the defferent endorgans In the Nyaya system, a sense is defined as a supersensible organ of knowledge having its locus in the animal organism A sense cannot itself be sensed on per
ceived. The existence of the senses is not a matter of direct
3
NYAYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
perception for us It is by means of inference or reasoning that we know their existence. The eye cannot perceive itself. But that there is a visual sense, follows from the. general law that every function is conditioned by some organ. So it has been said that a sense is what cannot be sensed
1 Vide Prameyakamalamärtanda, p 61
2 Ahamkāropādānakamındriyam,
Tattvakaumudi, 26 Cf NSV, ibid.
3 NS, 1 1 12, VP, Ch VII, SD, p 36
4 Sarinasamjuktam jñānakar pamatindrıyamındriyam, TB, p 19 Cf HH Price, Perception, p. 25 "By senses' I do not mean' sense-organs but sense-faculties,' 1 e the power of being acquainted with this or that kind of sense-datum."
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