Nyaya And Jaina Epistemology

Author(s): Kokila H Shah
Publisher: Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

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NYAYA AND JAINA EPISTEMOLOGY
2. Internal.
External perception takes place when the five external organs of sense come into contact with their respective external objects. It is of five kinds, namely, visual, auditory, tactual, gustatory and olfactory brought about by the senseorgans of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell respectively. Of the five senses, some Nyāya philosophers believe that the visual sense reaches an object and is, therefore, prāpyakāri.
Mind is reagarded as an internal sense in Nyāya and internal perception is brought about by the mind's contact with psychical states of processes.
According to another classification, ordinary perception is of three kinds :1. Indeterminate — nirvikalpaka 2. Determinate – savikalpaka 3. Recognition - pratyabhijñā.
Indeterminate and determinate perceptions are the two stages of the same process of perception. One is less advanced, the other is more advanced. Indeterminate perception is the primary cognition of an object as just an existing real without any characterization it as something.
Determinate perception is the perception of an object as qualified by certain attributes, though, it does not discover anything that is not there in the object itself.
Thus, indeterminate and determinate perceptions are the two grades of a process which is essentially identical and continuous in nature.