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NYAYA AND JAINA EPISTEMOLOGY
Jaina Theory of Error-Viparītakhyātivāda :
Jaina attitude to knowledge is empirical and realistic.
Valid knowledge is that which determines the nature of a thing as it really is. It is opposed to false knowledge. Error is one of the modes of false knowledge which consists in misunderstanding the nature of a thing or determination of a thing as it is not. Jaina realism also accepts correspondence theory of truth. False apprehension does not tally with the facts of reality. It is not true to the thing as it is.
Jainism, in accordance with its principle of nonabsolutism, asserts that a thing has many aspects and error is defined as judging a thing from one of its aspects. "Viparyaya or illusion consists in determining a thing from one aspect which is different from the thing in its entirety".2
If you look at a thing from one aspect, neglecting the others, your knowledge would be erroneous, e. g. in illusory perception of shell as silver we mistake one aspect of shell viz. whiteness for silver. Error is thus positive perception of a different thing. It is misapprehension. In an illusion "This is siver' where actually there is shell, shell is not perceived as a shell but is perceived as something different that is silver. Th subsequent knowledge contradicts illusory perception by removing it and makes it clear that previous perception was illusory.
Jain realism thus, emphasises the objectivity of error by pointing out that the object of perception is a real object but its real form is concealed and it assumes a different form, when it is not perceived from all its aspects. As a result of this, the peculiar characteristics of a real object are not perceived and some of the characteristics of illusory one are
