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CHAPTER VII
RELATION
Connectedness is an indubitable experience of reality. Whether it is (a) an independent entity alongside the various things of the Universe, or (b) a mental construction imposed on a disjoined heap of reality of the human mind, or (c) something which is objective, without being an entity, and an experience, which is not merely subjective—is a question which is supremely important in any inquiry into the nature of reality and knowledge. Hence a brief study of relation, with the necessary reference to its implications, for instance, whether it is external or internal and valid or invalid, may be attempted here. The entire discussion will, to anticipate the conclusion, reveal that relation is the structure of reality which is identity-in-difference.
A. Relation as an Objective Independent Entity :
The Naiyāyika', the extreme' realist, advances the theory
1. "The Naiyāyika' and 'the Vaišeşika' are largely interchange
able in course of this discussion, except for an important difference of opinion between them, viz., that the former treats samavāya as perceptual, whereas the latter treats it as infer
ential. See infra, p. 212 (f.), f.n. 5. 2. The predominant note of this 'extreme' realism is the em
phasis on the full knowableness and independence not merely
