5 research outputs found
Bhaį¹į¹a Jayanta: Comprehension, Knowledge, and the Reduction of Testimony to Inference
The present paper is an analysis of the defense of the epistemological autonomy of verbal testimony (Åabda), against its reduction to inference, as found in Bhaį¹į¹a Jayantaās NyÄyamaƱjarÄ«. The article identifies the VaiÅeį¹£ika, Buddhist and SÄį¹
khya positions hinted at in the NyÄyamaƱjarÄ«, and it analyses the reuse by Jayanta of the arguments conceived by the MÄ«mÄį¹sÄ philosopher KumÄrila. Unlike for MÄ«mÄį¹sakas, according to Jayanta the relation between language and reality is established by convention, but in its day-to-day usage it is clear that an a priori connection is a necessary condition for linguistic communication, so that the distinction between a fixed connection and a conventional one weakens. The analysis of Jayanta leads to two general conclusions: 1. In ancient NyÄya as attested by Jayanta there is no distinction between non-committal understanding and committal knowledge from words. Consequently, 2. in ancient NyÄya as attested by Jayanta the language is primarily examined from an epistemological viewpoint, as the conveyer of true statements. There are no āneutralā statements, and false statements are in fact inappropriate uses of language
Bhattamimamsa and Nyaya on Veda and Tradition
pubblicato anche da Firenze University Press, Firenze
Epistemology of Textual Re-use in the NyÄyamaƱjarÄ«
The epistemology of Åabda is one of the main themes in Bhaį¹į¹a Jayantaās NyÄyamaƱjarÄ«, and, in the hypotheses explored in this paper, also the conceptual basis of Jayantaās textual re-use. The sixth chapter of the NyÄyamaƱjarÄ« contains a debate between VaiyÄkaraį¹as and MÄ«mÄį¹sakas who, respectively, advocated an holistic or atomistic theory of language. Selected Jayantaās re-uses from VyÄkaraį¹a, MÄ«mÄį¹sÄ, and NyÄya sources are here surveyed and analyzed, with a focus on their meaning and on the context. The method of analysis is partially following Moravcsikās scheme for a classification of citations, as well as Smallās classification by symbolic functions. By re-using texts Jayanta not only imparted authority to his own arguments, but also reassessed the relation of his tradition with other ones. Re-used ideas and words stand for symbols of those authorsā tenets, and those authors represent symbols of their respective traditions. Moreover, by quoting a certain author Jayanta often anointed him with a symbolic status of trustworthy authority, and his statement with a status of ÅabdapramÄį¹a