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OTHER SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
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while in inference we pass from an undoubted fact (niscita yamaka) to its invariable concomitant, in arthapatti we proceed from a doubtful fact (samdigdha gamaka) to something which explains it and saves us from the doubt. 1 Finally, if arthapatti is to be reduced to inference, we must show what the linga or the middle term of that inference is. When we argue that Devadatta exists outside his house because he is living and yet absent from home, we cannot take mere 'absence from home' as the middle term, for the man may be dead and cease to exist at all. Nor can we say that living' is the middle term, because a living man may exist inside his house. Nor again can it be said that Devadatta's living together with his absence in the house' is the middle term from which we infer his existence outside the house. In an inference we first know the linga or the middle term and then, through it, the lingi or the major term The two are not known together, but one after the other In the case of Devadatta, however, we cannot connect his living with his absence from the house except through the idea of his existence outside the house. Hence to know the alleged middle term, namely, 'his living together with his absence from the house is just to know his existence outside the house This being known along with the alleged middle term, there remains nothing more to be inferred from it So arthāputti is not the inference of the major term from the middle term, but the presupposition of one fact in order to explain another, in which is involved a seeming contradiction.
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1 Syadevam, yadyanupapannam gamakam syat, iha tu yannopapadyate tadev gamyam. yatha canumane niscitam gamakam, evamarthapattau samdigdhal gamakamiti, etc., SD, pp 76-77
2 Na tā vadgṛhabhavamitra lingam mite'pi sambhavāt, Da Jivanamatran gho'pi sadbhāvāt, ato jīvanasamsṛṣto gṛhābhāvo lingamıtı vaktavyam, prathamam c lingamavagamya pascallingyanumanena bhavitavyam...atra ca na bahirbhavi vagamamantarena grhābhāvo ivanain ca sainsṛṣṭam pratyetum sakyate virodha etc., 8D., p. 78.
