Studies in Indian Philosophy

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

Page 98

Negation: Some Indian theories
propositions, but between a person and a proposition, then different persons can have different presuppositions or the same person can have different presuppositions at different times. The Nyaya rules out this possibility in the context of a negation. The Nyaya concept might be expressed in the following form12:
(x) (If x has cognised the negation of t at time y, then x has cognised t at time y'), where 'y' means 'prior to y'.
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C. Types of Negation:
According to the Nyaya there are two main types of negation. The difference between them at the level of language might be represented by the following for: s:
(1) x is not in y, or x does not occur in y, or the absence of x occurs in y;
(2) x is not y, or x is different from y; where 'x' and 'y' are non-empty terms.
Now (1) represents relational absence and (2) represents mutual absence. The positive counterpart of (1) is
(1') x is in y, or x occurs in y, and the positive counterpart of (2) is
(2') x is y.
According to the Nyaya in (1') the denotation of 'x' occurs in the denotation of 'y', and the relation of x to y is an occurrence-exacting relation. But in (2') 'x' and 'y' refer to the same thing. So x and y are related by the relation of identity. At the cognitive level (1') represents the type of cognition where x appears as superstratum and y appears as substratum, but (2') represents the type of cognition where the relation of identity is cognised between x and y.
Now let us discuss the different types of relational absence. There are three types of relational absence.
(a) The absence of an object before its production is called the 'not-yet type of relational absence'. It is claimed