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were tried, leading at last to the syllogistic system in the Gautama sūtras. Attempts have been made to show that Gotama borrowed the idea from Aristotle. I am not a Greek scholar and cannot say how Aristotle arrived at his syllogisms; but Gotama had to work upon pre-existing system. There was a time when ten elements were required in a syllogism. Gradually they were discarded one after another and Gotama believed in five. Some of his successors were ready to discard the first two of these and make the clements three only. This they say is Aristotle's syllogism. If it is so, the Indians arrived at it by a process which is all their own. But the Indians were not satisfied with this, so to say, mechanical form. Their originality lay in the investigation of the relation between the middle term and the minor term, and the middle term and the major term, Pakṣadharmatā and Vyapti and in defining these two terms, the Hindu and Buddhist logicians have displayed an accuracy and boldness of speculation which excite the admiration of all thinking men. For centuries they speculated on the definition of Vyapti. They rejected fourteen definitions before they arrived at a conclusion, the Siddhantalaksana. Their attempt to have a definition of fallacy also gave rise to infinite speculations. The relation of words and their meaning the relation of inflexions with their bases were also investigated with great power of discernment. In the analysis of sentences they were not satisfied with a mechanical form or a tabular statement. Some made the verb to be the chief thing in a sentence others again the nominative: and it is both interesting and amusing to hear the professors of these two schools of analysis discoursing at the ghats of Benares in an evening to prove that his opponent was in the wrong. So far with Logic. In Metaphysics our ancestors divided themselves into various schools each having a number of great men as their professors. Their chief point was the emancipation of the soul. There was no dispute about that point, but the processes of emancipation are widely divergent. One school believes that the soul after emancipation remains absolute - all relations ceasing. Others again say that is impossible; if the soul remains it must remain in relations. What is emancipation, then, according to these? Sunya, Void. It is, however, not a negation of existence; it is a state beyond our comprehension, - it transcends our power of comprehension. Then comes another school, which asks whether that state beyond our comprehension is positive or negative. One says, positive, another negative. I think we should not go beyond. When things are beyond our comprehension we should stop here. But we cannot help admiring the boldness and subtlety of their speculations.
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