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

Page 240

THREE MODES OF ORDINARY PERCEPTION
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the feeling as a cognition of this or that definite thing. Hence savikalpaka is as valid as, but more expressive than, nirvikalpaka perception."
Yet another theory of perception, which we have to consider no., presents wluit my be called the most concrete view of perception. It takes up the extreme position that all perceptions are savikalpaka or determinate and that there is no such thing as a perfectly indeterminale (nirtikalpaka) perception. This view of perception is shared by the Cārvākas, the Jamas, the ancient Sābdikas and the Viśıstādvaita Vedānta of Rāmānuja According to Rāmānuja, to know a thing is to know it as possessed of certain attributes. A thing's existence cannot be separated from its nature and attributes. To know the 'that' or existence of a thing is also to know the ' what'or the nature of its existence. All knowledge is, therefore, a definite cognition of some object as related to a certain class and qualifie.. by certain attributes. It is always a determinate (savikalpaka) cignition of the object as this or that kind of thing. There cannot be any knowledge of the perfectly indeterminate That which is no thing in particular cannot be the object of our knowledge. Hence there is no such thing as nude!erminate (nirvikalpaka) knowledge in the sense of a cognition of what is not determined or characterised in any way (niruiseșa). There being thus no absolutely indeterınınate knowledge, the distinctin of nirvikalpaka and savikalpaka perception is a relative distinction. It is a distinction between two perceptions, both of which cognise an object as somehow qualified and determined (saviseşavisaya). But while in niivikalpaka the object of perception is partially determined, in savikalpaka it is determined more fully and clearly. Thus the first perception of a cow is nirvikalpaka in the sense of being a cognition of it as an animal of a certain make-up, or of some kind, but not
1 Vide NVT., pp 197.44, NM., pp. 64-69.