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NYAYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
of the syllogism As such, it becomes a kind of fallacy that corresponds to the fallacy of accident in Westeru logic.
According to a second interpretation, the halātīta is the fallacy of a wrong order of the different members of the syllogism. It is illustrated when there is an inversion of the natural order of the pre nises and the conclusion, as when we put the premises after the conclusion. On this view, the kālātīta corresponds to the fallacy of hysteron proteron. But this view of the matter is not accepted by the Naiyāyikas. A change in the order of the members of a syllogism does not really affect its validity nor render it fallacious. Further, such a change does not involve a fallacy of the middle term or an inferential fallacy It constitutes a defect in the method or procedure and is, therefore, described as the clincher of the inopportune (aprūptakāla nigrahasthāna). 1
Although the fallacy of the būdhıta bas been treated by some writers as another name for that of the kālūtīta, yet it seems to me better to distinguish between the two in view of the sharp contrast in their meanings While the kālātīta stands for a middle terın vitiated by a limitation in time, the būdhita means a middle term which is contradicted by some other source of knowledge (pramānāntarena) A middle term is contradicted when it leads to a conclusion, the opposite of which is proved to be true by some other pramāna. This is illustrated by the argument 'fire is cool, because it is a substance' Here the middle term
substance,' which seeks to prove that fire is cool, is contradicted because we know from tactual perception that
1 Ibid It should be remarked bere tbat although it be usoal in a syllogism to put the premises before the conclusion, yet that 18 neither logically necessary por psychologically correct It 18 now generally recognised by logicians that a syllogism may take another form in which the conclusion comes first and the prardises follow it Hence we see that a change in the usual order of the propositions in a syllogism involves neither the fallacy of hysteron proteron por the clincher of tbe inopportune.
