Nyāya’s Response to Skepticism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Problem Of Induction ◽  
Indian School

Abstract The classical Indian school called Nyāya (literally “logic” or “right reasoning”), is arguably the leading anti-skeptical tradition within all of Indian philosophy. Defending a realist metaphysics and an epistemology of “knowledge sources” (pramāṇa), its responses to skepticism are often appropriated by other schools of thought. This paper examines its responses to skeptical arguments from dreams, from “the three times,” from justificatory regress, and over the problem of induction.

The Problem of Induction in Indian Philosophy

1984 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy W. Perrett
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Problem Of Induction

Gaṅgeśa (fl. c.1325)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Multidimensional System ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Indian School ◽  
New School ◽  
Classical Indian Philosophy ◽  
Realist Ontology

Gaṅgeśa launched and solidified advances in logic and epistemology within the classical Indian school of Logic, Nyāya. He is traditionally taken to have inaugurated the ‘New’ school, Navya-Nyāya. Nyāya, both Old and New, is a multidimensional system that belies the stereotype of Indian philosophy as idealist and mystical in orientation. Gaṅgeśa worked with a realist ontology of objects spoken about and experienced every day. He articulated what may be called a reliabilist theory of knowledge: under specified conditions, sense-mediated and inferential cognitions (along with two other types) are reliable sources of information about reality. Gaṅgeśa was a pivotal figure in classical Indian philosophy; most later debate both within his school and outside it presupposed cognitive analyses that he standardized. These analyses focus on properties exhibited by things known, properties central to the processes whereby they are known. Properties relating the cognized to the cognizer are especially important. Though Gaṅgeśa had a lot to say about the ontological status of these properties, others in his school found them problematic. Such controversy appears to have contributed to New Logic’s success: proponents of rival views were able to utilize Gaṅgeśa’s formulas and definitions without abandoning their own positions on what is real.

Materialism, Indian school of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Franco ◽  
Karin Preisendanz
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Indian School ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Moral Ideals ◽  
Philosophical School ◽  
Classical Indian Philosophy

‘Materialism’ stands here for the Sanskrit term Lokāyata, the most common designation for the materialistic school of classical Indian philosophy. However, at the outset ‘materialism’ and ‘Lokāyata’ were not equivalent: early materialistic doctrines were not associated with Lokāyata, and early Lokāyata was neither materialistic nor even a philosophical school. Classical Lokāyata stands apart from all other Indian philosophical traditions due to its denial of ethical and metaphysical doctrines such as karmic retribution, life after death, and liberation. Its ontology, tailored to support this challenge, allows only four material elements and their various combinations. Further support comes from Lokāyata epistemology: the validity of inference and Scriptures is denied and perception is held to be the only means of valid cognition. As offshoots, a fully fledged scepticism and a theory of limited validity of inference developed in response to criticism by other philosophers. Consistent with Lokāyata ontology and epistemology, its ethics centres on the criticism of all religious and moral ideals which presuppose invisible agents and an afterlife. Hostile sources depict its followers as promulgating unrestricted hedonism.

The Old Man in Purgatory: The Indian Part in Yeats's Vision of Salvation

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 251-268
Author(s):  
Yeeyon Im
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
Selfless Action

This essay examines Yeats's Purgatory via A Vision, in an attempt to understand his view of salvation in particular relation to Indian philosophy. Read from a Christian perspective, Purgatory may be a work far from purgation, as T. S. Eliot once complained. I wish to show in this essay that Purgatory indeed places emphasis on purgation by a negative example, if in a different way from the Catholic one. Yeats denies the linear eschatology of Christian theology as well as its doctrine of salvation in eternal heaven. In A Vision, Yeats explains his view of the afterlife of the soul, which involves purgation through ‘the Dreaming Back’. The special treatment of the Old Man renders Purgatory a meta-purgatorial play that mirrors the Dreaming Back of his mother's spirit in the Old Man's, intensifying the theme of purgation. Purgatory effectively dramatizes the inability to forgive and cast out remorse: the impossibility of nishikam karma, or selfless action, to borrow Sanskrit terms, which is essential for Yeatsian salvation. Finally, I would also emphasize Yeats's deviation from the Hindu wisdom, which makes Yeats's vision uniquely his own.

Knowledge creation in small building and construction firms

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Durst ◽  
Ingi Runar Edvardsson ◽  
Guido Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Small Building

Studies on knowledge creation are limited in general, and there is a particular shortage of research on the topic in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the importance of SMEs for the economy and the vital role of knowledge creation in innovation, this situation is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, the purpose of our study is to increase our understanding of how SMEs create new knowledge. Data are obtained through semi-structured interviews with ten managing directors of German SMEs operating in the building and construction industry. The findings demonstrate the influence of external knowledge sources on knowledge creation activities. Even though the managing directors take advantage of different external knowledge sources, they seem to put an emphasis on informed knowledge sources. The study´s findings advance the limited body of knowledge regarding knowledge creation in SMEs.

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