(“method”) One of the
six classic Hindu philosophical schools concerned with the investigation and
valuation of knowledge items.
The Nyayas were the first to create and codify the concept
of pramanas, or the ways by which humans may get real and exact knowledge.
Perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), analogy
(upamana), and authoritative witness are four such pramanas accepted by the
Nyayas (shabda).
The Nyayas' greatest contribution to Indian philosophy is
their concepts, which are acknowledged by practically all Indian philosophical
systems.
The Nyayas, like other Indian philosophical schools,
embarked on a quest for knowledge not for the sake of speculation, but to
discover a means to free the soul from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara).
The Nyaya Sutras, according to Gautama, are the school's
historic foundation.
The sutras begin by claiming that knowledge and its aspects
may provide ultimate bliss to a person.
The second sutra in the book outlines a five-part causal
chain: pain, birth, action, flaw, and erroneous belief.
Each of these components is caused by the one before it, and
is removed when its cause is destroyed.
The underlying reason of all of this is
"misconception," which is why the Nyaya were interested in
investigating the pramanas.
The Nyayas derive their metaphysics from the Vaisheshika
school, with whom they merged in the early decades of the common period.
Their philosophical viewpoint is frequently referred to as
the "common man's notion." The Nyayas and Vaisheshikas are
philosophical realists, believing that the universe is made up of many separate
objects that exist as experienced, with the exception of perceptual errors.
All things are made up of nine essential substances: the
five elements, space, time, mind, and self, and everything that exists can be
named.
The Nyayas believe in the asatkaryavada causal model, which
states that when anything is generated, it becomes a new entity, distinct from
its constituent components.
Because each act of creation creates a new object, this
causal model tends to increase the number of things in the universe.
It also acknowledges that human efforts and acts are one of
the factors determining these effects, implying that acting in a manner that
leads to complete soul liberation is potentially feasible (moksha).
The Nyaya school's belief in inherence (samavaya), a weak
relational force that connects many things: wholes and their parts, substances
and their qualities, movements and the objects that move, and generic traits
and their specific examples, is one of the school's distinguishing features.
The Self (atman) is the centre of all experience for the
Nyayas.
All experiences—pleasure, pain, happiness, grief, and so
on—are linked to the Self through inherence.
The Nyaya school struggled with philosophical issues
surrounding inherence, specifically the assumption that it is a singular
principle rather than a collection of objects.
The growth of the Navyanyaya school, which sought to explain
these linkages in a more nuanced fashion, was largely due to these assumptions.
Indian Philosophical Analysis, edited by Karl H. Potter and Sibajiban Bhattacharyya, was published in 1992, and A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore, was published in 1957.
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