Nyaya Theory of Knowledge

SR No.: 011115
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Chateerjee
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1939
Total Pages: 440
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 248

EXTRAORDINARY PERCEPTION
229
our sense. According to the Naiyāyikas, when we perceive one pot we perceive the universal 'potness' as its defining property. It is this perception of the universal 'potness' in the present pot that serves the purpose of contact (āsatti) between sense and all other pots. The knowledge of the universal (sāmānyajñāna) is here the medium of sense-object contact, by which we have a perception of all pots when one is perceived.' It may be objected here that sāmānyalaksana perception would make each of us omniscient If all the objects of a class are known with the perception of any of them, we should know all knowable objects when we perceive anything of the world as belonging to the class of knowables. The Naiyāyıkas reply that in sāmānyalaksana we perceive only one member of a class as an individual with its specific and generic properties, while the other members are known as possessing the generic property or the universal alone. Hence we cannot expect to have that full and detailed knowledge of all things, which is implied by omniscience
That sāmānyalaksana is a type of real percep-ion is supported by the Naiyāyikas on the following grounds. Without it we cannot explain the knowledge of universal propositions (vyāpti), wbich is presupposed in inference. How do we know that all smokes are related to fire ? We cannot know this if our perception be limited to particular smokes, for any number of particulars will not make up the universal. Hence we must admit that i hule perceiving one smoke as related to fire, we perceive all smokes, through the universal 'smokeness,' as so related. It cannot be said that it is unnecessary to assume that we perceive all smokes as related to fire, because we cannot even doubt if all smokes are related to fire or not unless all smokes are somehow presented to us when we do perceive one as related
I Asattırācrayonāru tu gamanyajñanamişyato, etc., BP. and SM , 64-65.