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NATURE OF INFERENCE
255 knowledge which is preceded by perception.” It depends on perception for the knowledge of the linga or the middle term as subsisting in the pakṣa or the minor term. It depends on perception also for the knowledge of vyāptı or the universal relation between the middle and major terms of inference. It is only when we have observed two things to be always related that from the perception of the one we infer the existence of the other. Thus inference 18 knowledge derived from some other knowledge, while perception is not derived from any other knowledge. That is, inference is inediate and perception immediate knowledge of an object.
All perception is essentially of one kind, namely, that it is a knowledge of what is given But there are different kinds of inferences based on different kinds of vyāpti or universal relation. Perception is generally due to some contact of our sense-organs with the objects perceived by us. It gives us knowledge of only those objects which lie within the range of the senses. Hence it is limited to the here and the now, 1.e. to present objects Inference, on the other hand, is due to the knowledge of vyāptı or universal relations among objects. It is by means of such universal principles that inference gives us a knowledge of objects beyond the reach of our senses. It extends our knowledge from the present to the past, distant and future. Ordinarily we perceive objects that are in actual contact with our senses, but we infer those that are not open to sense perception. Perception usually excludes inference but not vice versa. Wbat is perceived or directly known does not ordinarily require to be known indirectly by means of inference. Inference functions with regard to neither what is absolutely unknown nor what is definitely known. It relates to objects that are
1 N8,1 16 2 NB., 1. 1 5 3 NV, 21 31.
