Indian Logic Part 01

Author(s): Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Sanskrit Sanskriti Granthmala

Page 43

INDIAN LOGIC
an observable quality produced in the soul concerned by the concerned causal aggregate.
ar aggregate.
7 Jayanta begins by arguing that even if cognition be of the form of an operation - that is, action - it should not be something unobservable because it is the Kumārilite's own position that an action belonging to an observable substance (like soul) is sometbing observable; to this it is added that if all action is of the form of an unobservable operation undertaken by a causal aggregate then an infinite regress is unavoidable inasmuch as the action of a member of this causal aggregate will require another causal aggregate and so on ad infinitum. 3 4 'The opponent pleads that the members of a causal aggregate come together to bring about something and that this something is the operation concerned; Jayanta replies that these members bring about nothing save the result concerned.8 5 The opponent insists that the members of a causual aggregate come together to bring about an action; Jayanta first replies that these members do not come together to bring about something unobservable, the point being that they come together to bring about the result itself which is something observable, but then he goes on to add that each of these members does bring about an action which is specific to it and is something observable, the point being that these members bring about no action that is something unobservable.36 Now the opponent submits that the members of a causal aggregate bring about something that is over and above their respective actions and that this something is the operation concerned; Jayanta in essence replies by way of posing a dilemma: if this operation is brought about by these members acting together then each of them must be inactive unless all come together - e.g. in that case fuel should not burn unless it is cooking rice, if this operation is brought about by these members acting singly then it should be brought by each acting singly - e.g. in that case rice should be cooked by burning fuel alone. 37 This reply of Jayanta is based on the consideration that the members of a causal aggregate are said to bring about an operation in the form of something new while he sees there nothing