Book Title: Nyaya Theory of Knowledge Author(s): S C Chateerjee Publisher: University of CalcuttaPage 65
________________ 46 NYAYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE illusory because it is contradicted by the experience of the saine object as shell and not silver. But neither the experience of sbell nor that of silver is subjective. Botb of the contradictory experiences are objective, since the real object itself has contradictory characters. Holt says that " the case of hallucinations is paralleled by such cases as that of mirrored space, wherein sundry mirrored objects occupy the same spatial positions as are occupied by other real' objects situated behind the mirror." Hence we are to say that error consists in entertaining mutually contradictory propositions, of wbich one may be preferable, but none subjective, because the world is full of such contradictory propositions. On this view, however, the distinction between truth and error becomes insignificant. The same thing may, with equal truth, be called a shell or silver The Nyāya does not go so far as to say that contradictory characters belong to the same thing or that contradictory propositions are equally objective. It is not the case that the same real has the contrary characters of shellness and silverness. It has really one character, namely, shellness. But the silver is also a perceived fact. Hence the crucial question is: How can the silver, which exists elsewhere, be presented here and now ? The Nyāya explains this by jñānalakṣaṇāpratyāsattı which means a kind of sense-object contact brought about by the impressional revival of the past experience of an object. Hence there is a jñānalakşana perception of the silver. As we shall see more fully hereafter, the perception of the silver is a case of what is called “complication ” by some Western psychologists. In it the sensation of a particular bright colour calls up, by its previous association, the impression of silver and we have the perception of silver in the shell. The silver does not appear as an idea or image of the mind, but is a content 1 Ibid, pp 369-70.Page Navigation
1 ... 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440