Role Of Drstanta Indignagas Logic

Author(s): Shoryu Katsura
Publisher: Shoryu Katsura

Page 11

relation between two items P and Q, though we can easily derive from such a relation a kind of general law that whatever is P is Q. The puropse of Dignāga's example statements is precisely to formulate such a general law; that is why the order of P and Q is reversed there in order to present it in a logically proper way. In order to avoid a confusion, anvaya and vya tireka expressed in the two examples are by later authors called anvaya-vyāpti (a positive pervasion) and vyatirekavyāpti (a negative pervasion) respectively.
It is to be noted in passing that Dignāga does not give any argument for justifying the introduction of eva restriction; in other words, he never tried to justify the very foundation of his theory of vyāpti. Consdiering Dignāga's allusion to anvaya and yyatireka in PSV chapter V, I am inclined to think that he proposed vyāpti ora general law solely on the basis that no counter-example is so far observed (adarśanamātreņa) in the domain of dissimilar examples.20 It suggests the hypothetical nature of deductive part of Dignāga's logic.
2.3. Let us see again how Dignāga actually formulates a logical relation or vyāpti in the example statements of Proof 2.
[similar ex.) “yat prayatnānantarīyakam tad anityam drstam yathā ghataḥ” . [dissimilar ex.]“yan nityam tad aprayatnānantarīyakam drstam yathākāśam”
It is clear that he uses the relative pronouns yad and tad in order to express a kind of universal relation: Whatever is Pis Q, or whatever is not Q is not P. He also indicates that the same relation can be expressed by inserting the restrictive particle eva in an appropriate place.21 For example,
[similar ex.] “anityam eva prayatnānantarīyakam yathā ghato vidyuc ca" [dissimilar ex.)“aprayatnānantarīyakam eva nityam yathākāśam”
In this context the restrictive particle ena is behaving almost like a 'universal
20 Please see my article. 21 See PSV[K] 14868-149a3, which is to be discussed later.
Dignāga on Example - 11