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236 Philosophy of the Rāmānuja School of Thought [ch. fication of logical categories. There can be no two opinions regarding the admission of the fact that there are at least certain entities which are logically valid; for if logical validity is denied, logic itself becomes unfounded. All our experiences assume the existence of certain objective factors on which they are based. A general denial of such objective factors takes away the very root of experience. It is only when such objective factors are admitted to be in existence in a general manner that there may be any inquiry regarding their specific nature. If everything were invalid, then the opponent's contention would also be invalid. If everything were doubted, then also it would remain uncontradictory. The doubt itself cannot be doubted and the existence of doubt would have to be admitted as a decisive conclusion. So, even by leading a full course of thoroughgoing doubt, the admission of the possibility of definite conclusion becomes irresistiblel. Therefore, the contention of the Buddhists that there is nothing valid and that there is nothing the certainty of which can be accepted, is inadmissible. If, there fore, there are things of which definite and valid knowledge is possible, there arises a natural inquiry about the means or instruments by which such valid knowledge is possible. The word pramāna is used in two senses. Firstly, it means valid knowledge; secondly, it means instruments by which valid knowledge is produced. pramāņa as valid knowledge is defined by Venkata as the knowledge which corresponds to or produces a behaviour leading to an experience of things as they are (pathā-vasthita-ryavahārā-nugunam)? The definition includes behaviour as an indispensable condition of pramāṇa such that, even though in a particular case a behaviour may not actually be induced, it may yet be pramāna if the knowledge be such that it has the capacity of producing a behaviour which would tally with things as they are 3. The definition
q'yarahüro hi jagato bharaty ālmbane kracit na tat sâmānyato nasti kathantā tu parikspate sāmānva-niścitā-rthena riseșe tu bubhutsitum pariksa hy ucitā sie-sta-pramāņo-tpädanā-tmikā...
sarram sandigdham iti te nipunasyä'sti niscayah samsayas ca na sandigdhaḥ sandigdhu-draita-z ādinah.
Nyāya-parisuddhi, p. 31 (Chowkhamba edition). 2 Nyāya-parisuddhi, by Venkatanātha, p. 36.
3 anuguna-padam yatahāra-janana-starūpa-yogya-param tenā'janita-z'yarahāre pathā-rtha-jñāna-t'isese nä'zyāptih. Srinivăsa's Nyāya-sära on Nyāyaparisuddhi, p. 36.
