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OTHER SOURCES OF EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
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involved in the fact of recollection. The Jainas were primarily concerned with the analysis of recollection as a pramāņa. The psychological factors involved in recollection were only incidentally referred to. In fact, all Indian thought gives mainly a metaphysical and epistemological analysis of the problems of knowledge, although psychological factors are incidentally mentioned.
Recognition (Pratyabhijña)
Recollection (smrti), does not give us a complete picture of memory unless recognition as a factor operates. Complete memory involves retention, recall and recognition. We may, however, say that retention is a condition of memory, and recall and recognition are not so much conditions of memory. They are forms of expressing the cognition experienced in the past. Remembering may take. different forms. The effects of past learning may manifest themselves through the activities of recall or of recognition and they manifest themselves by making it easier to relearn the original experience. 24 Corresponding to these forms of remembering there are different procedures in which memory may be employed as a test for the continued retention of the effects of learning. These are the methods of recall, recognition and relearning.25 We are not concerned with relearning because it is not a valid source of knowledge as such.
Recognition was defined as the remembering of something that was presented to the senses. For instance, as Woodworth mentions, we recognize a friend by his visible appearance or by the sound of his voice. His dog may recognize him by the sense of smell. The other senses may sometimes provide cues for recognizing an object already experienced in the past. 'Cues or signs are used in recognition as they are used in perception. In fact, recognition is a kind of perception.'26 McDougall makes a distinction between implicit and explicit recognition. The former is primitive and the latter develops out of it. The dog that runs away at the sight of a man who threw a stone at it, is showing only implicit recognition. The dog does not think this is the man who threw the stone'. For us, the utterance of the proper name of the object is an important part of recognition. The similarity of the effect on us is an essential ground of recognition. “The capacity for recognition, and so of all remembering, is at bottom of the fundamental function which James calls 'conception' and which perhaps is better called 'knowing'". 27
The question regarding the nature of recognition was discussed by the Nyāya thinkers. Chatterjee mentions a distinction in the meaning
24 Hunter (S. L. M.): Memory-Facts and Fallacies, p. 16, (Pelican). 25 Ibid. 26 Woodworth (R. S.): Psychology- A Study of Mental Life, p. 569. 27 McDougall (W.): Outline of Psychology, p. 308.
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