Book Title: Nyaya Theory of Knowledge
Author(s): S C Chateerjee
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Previous | Next

Page 239
________________ 220 NYAYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE " 1 nor word-image answering to that name. With this we remember the class-name of the perceived object and call it by that name. It is here that we have a savikalpaha perception of the object expressed in the proposition this is a cow.' The Buddhists deny the validity of the sachalpaka mode of perception. They contend that what is given in perception is a bare particular which belongs to no class and bears no name, .e. has no relations. Its class, name, etc., are only thought-relations which do not exist in the object, but are introduced into it by the thinking subject to meet the needs of our practical life. From the standpoint of the Nyaya realism, however, there is no error in the savikalpaka perception of an object as qualified by certain attributes and called by a name. According to it, what is given in nirvikalpaka perception is neither a characterless an uncharacterisable object, although it be not so far characterised in any way. In reality the object is a concrete individual in which certain particulars or specific attributes are united with a certain class-essence or universal. While in nirvikalpaka the object is apprehended as an undifferentiated whole of the universal and the particulars, in savikalpaka these are analysed, unfolded and recombined into the substantive-adjective relation. Hence it cannot be said that savikalpaka is concerned only with thought-relations which have no objective basis. Rather, it unfolds all that is implicitly involved in the nirvikalpaka stage and expresses it in the form of a proposition. It does not add anything that is not contained in the object itself. It represents no change or development in the object of perception. On the other hand, it marks a change in the perceptive consciousness of the object, a development of it from a dumb feeling of something there' to an articulate expression of 1 Vide NVT., p. 128, NK., p. 192. 1 Vide NVT., pp. 188 f., and TR, pp. 60-61.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440