Studies in Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 90

Negation: Some Indian theories
According to the Nyaya the simplest qualificative cognition has as its object, say, a pot together with potness in a certain relation. The whole complex is expressed by the expression 'a pot', and described by a more complex expression 'potness inheres in a particular pot-individual'.
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In a qualificative cognition the qualifier represents the mode of presentation of the qualificand. So in a qualificative cognition an object is cognised under some mode of presentation. In a non-qualificative cognition the ultimate elements of a qualificative cognition are cognised by themselves.
Let us consider the cognition of a pot expressed by the expression 'a pot'. The expression 'a pot' expresses a qualificative cognition. In this cognition the qualificand is an individual pot, the qualifier is potness, i.e., the mode of presentation of a pot, and the qualification relation is inherence. In this qualificative cognition an individual pot is cognised under the mode of potness in the relation of inherence. In the technical language of the Nyaya this relation of inherence in this context is called the 'prakarata-avacche daka-sambandha'. This expression can be translated as 'the limiting relation of the property of being the qualifier'. This concept can be explained in the following way. In the cognition a R b, 'a' is the first member of the relation 'R' and 'b' is its second member. We can therefore say that b has the property of being its second member. This property is limited by R. This is what is meant by saying that R is the limiting relation of the property of being the qualifier.
In this context it is to be noted that the mode of presentation of an object need not be an essential property of an object. But when we are talking about the meaning of an expression, the mode of presentation, according to the Nyāya, is to be taken as the reason for applying an expression to whatever object or objects it applies.
From the above discussion of the Nyaya concept of cognition it follows that any qualificative cognition can be described by the form 'a R b', where 'a' is a qualificand, 'b' is a