Viparitakhyati is a Sanskrit word that means "discrimination in the face of the law".
Kumarila, a Mimamsa philosopher from the seventh century C.E., proposed a theory of error.
All theories of error seek to explain why people make mistakes in judgment, such as mistaking a silvery flash of seashell for a piece of silver, which is a common example.
Kumarila, like Prabhakara and the Naiyayikas, believes that the simple judgments "that object is silvery" and "silver is silvery" are both correct and unquestionable.
Kumarila also agrees with the Naiyayika that the error stems from a false discrimination.
The Naiyayikas postulate the inherence-relationship as a connecting sub jects and predicates ("silver color" and "silver").
This is where he differs from them.
Kumarila's theory is identity-and-difference (bhedabhada), which states that everything is what it is and not what it isn't.
As a result, the perception (pratyaksha) of a shell on the beach would include its similitudes and differences from silveriness, as well as silver's similitudes and differences from silveriness.
One can make a false judgment by combining similarities, or one can make a true judgment by combining differences.
The root cause of combining similarities rather than differences, as in the Naiyayika theory of error, is karmic dispositions arising from avidya, specifically the desire for silver, which drives us to seek out such valuable items.
For more information, see Bijayananda Kar's The Theories of Error in Indian Philosophy, published in 1978, and Karl H. Potter's Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, published in 1972.
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