Nyāya Sūtra – on Philosophical Method Sanskrit Text, Translation, and Commentary Routledge Hindu Studies Series

Ny?ya S?tra offers a new English translation of the text ascribed to Ak?ap?da, an Indian philosopher who lived around the beginning of the Common Era. The translation is accompanied by the original Sanskrit text and an original commentary.

The commentary explains every s?tra separately and identifies the sources of the Ny?ya S?tra. It analyses the way older ideas on epistemology, logic, and soteriology were presented as a new coherent system of thought. The book puts forward the main goal of the Ny?ya S?tra: to define what it considered the basic tenets of a soteriology and how the goal of this soteriology could be reached by rationally applying epistemological and logical methods to finding out the truth. In turn, this truth was thought to lead to the ultimate soteriological goal of freedom from suffering. Showing the coherence of the text and its ultimate goal being soteriological, the new commentary also discusses many scholarly issues regarding the Ny?ya S?tra and its position in the history of Indian philosophy.

This book will be of interest to researchers studying Indian philosophy, world philosophies, epistemology, logic, philosophical method, art of debate, soteriology, rationalism, spirituality, Hinduism, Indian religions, and religious studies.

Introduction 1

Chapter 1a 11

The use 11

Means of valid cognition 13

Objects worth knowing 16

On the method, first part 21

Established tenets 23

The method defined 25

Further parts of the method 33

Chapter 1b 36

Verbalised forms 36

Fallacious reasons 37

Deliberate misinterpretation 39

General inferential mistakes 42

Chapter 2a 44

Doubt 44

General characteristics of the means of valid cognition 47

Definition of perception 54

Perception is inference 57

Whole made up of parts 58

Inference 60

Present 62

Comparison 63

Statement in general 66

Statement in detail 69

Chapter 2b 73

Four means of valid cognition 73

Non-eternity of sound 78

Modifications of sound 87

Ascertaining the meaning of words 94

Chapter 3a 99

The different senses 99

The self is separate from the body 100

The organ of sight is not single 102

The self is different from the mind 104

The self is eternal 105

Physical body 109

Senses derive from the elements 110

Differences between the sense organs 115

Sense objects 119

Chapter 3b 126

Understanding is not eternal 126

Momentariness in general 131

Understanding as a quality of the self 134

Understanding springs up and comes to a final end 144

Understanding not a quality of the body 145

Mind 149

The body brought about by unseen causes 151

Chapter 4a 157

Worldly activities and moral flaws 157

Three types of moral flaws 157

Hereafter 159

The material cause is emptiness 161

The material cause is the Lord 162

Things come into being without cause 164

Refuting that everything is impermanent 165

Refuting that everything is permanent 166

Refuting that everything is totally particular 168

Refuting the emptiness of everything 170

Refuting enumerations 172

Fruits of action 174

Suffering 178

Final liberation 179

Chapter 4b 186

True knowledge 186

Parts and wholes consisting of parts 187

That which is without parts 193

Refuting the breaking up of outer objects 196

Increasing true knowledge 201

Protecting true knowledge 205

Chapter 5a 207

Fallacious indications of a true counter-position 208

Six rejoinders 213

Two rejoinders 218

Infinite regress and a generally perceived fact that is contrary 219

Non-emergence 221

Doubt 222

Subsection 222

Absence of a reason 223

Implication 224

Non-differentiation 224

What is truly possible 225

Perception 226

Non-perception 226

What is not eternal 227

What is eternal 228

Effect 229

Six positions in a fallacious debate 230

Chapter 5b 234

Five grounds for losing an argument 234

Four grounds for losing an argument 238

Three grounds for losing an argument 239

Repetitiveness 240

Inability to give an answer 241

Assenting to the opinion of the opponent 242

Unusual statements 243

Bibliography 245

Index 249

Victor A. van Bijlert was until retirement Lecturer of Indian Religions and Sanskrit, Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the author of Vedantic Hinduism in Colonial Bengal (Routledge, 2021).