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A brief and well written notes on Vaisheshika Philosophy
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This is a brief and well written notes of Vaisheshika Philosophy. This tackles about karma, guna, samanya, vishesa, samanyana, and the likes.
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Lecture Notes on Asian PhilosophySacred Heart Seminary Philippines
VAISHESHIKA
Vaisheshika, (Sanskrit: “Particular”) one of the six systems (darshans) of
Indian philosophy, significant for its naturalism, a feature that is not characteristic of
most Indian thought. The Sanskrit philosopher Kanada Kashyapa (2nd–3rd century
CE?) expounded its theories and is credited with founding the school. Important later
commentaries were written by Prashastapada, Udayanacharya, and Shridhara.
After a period of independence, the Vaisheshika school fused entirely with the Nyaya
school, a process that was completed in the 11th century. Thereafter the combined
school was referred to as Nyaya-Vaisheshika.
The Vaisheshika school attempts to identify, inventory, and classify the
entities and their relations that present themselves to human perceptions. It lists six
categories of being (padarthas), to which was later added a seventh. These are:
1. Dravya, or substance, the substratum that exists independently of all other
categories, and the material cause of all compound things produced from it.
Dravyas are nine in number: earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, spirit,
and mind.
2. Guna, or quality, which in turn is subdivided into 24 species.
3. Karma, or action. Both guna and karma inhere within dravya and cannot exist
independently of it.
4. Samanya, or genus, which denotes characteristic similarities that allow two or
more objects to be classed together.
5. Vishesha, or specific difference, which singles out an individual of that class.
6. Samavaya, or inherence, which indicates things inseparably connected.
To these six was later added abhava, nonexistence or absence. Though
negative in content, the impression it makes is positive; one has a perception of an
absence where one misses something. Four such absences are recognized: previous
absence, as of a new product; later absence, as of a destroyed object; total absence, as
of colour in the wind; and reciprocal absence, as of a jar and a cloth, neither of which
is the other.
The Vaisheshika system holds that the smallest, indivisible, indestructible part
of the world is an atom (anu). All physical things are a combination of the atoms of
earth, water, fire, and air. Inactive and motionless in themselves, the atoms are put
into motion by God’s will, through the unseen forces of moral merit and demerit.
Vaisheshika, also Vaisesika, is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy
(orthodox Vedic systems) of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with
the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya. The Vaisesika is primarily a metaphysics system of
thought which classifies all beings into seven categories, and postulates that all
objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of atoms. The exact
periods of the origin of Vaisesika have not been established; it is thought to be more
ancient than Nyāya, and may have preceded, but was at least contemporary with,
Buddhism and Jainism. The founder of Vaisesika is considered to be Kanāda, author
of the Vaishesika Sutra, written sometime after 300 B.C.E. Vaisesika is a system of
pluralistic realism, which emphasizes that reality consist in difference. The Vaisesika
school admits the reality of spiritual substances—the soul and God—and also the Law
of Karma; therefore, its atomism is not materialism.
Origins of Vaisesika
, Vaisesika is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy. The word
“Vaisesika” is derived from “Vishesa,” which means “distinction,” or “distinguishing
feature,” or “particularity.” The Vaisesika is primarily a system of physics and
metaphysics which classifies all objects of experience into six categories, and
postulates that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of
atoms. The founder of Vaisesika is Kanāda, also known as Kanabhuk, Aulukya the
son of Ulǖka, and Kāshyapa. He was given the name Kanāda because he was an
ascetic who lived on the grains picked up from the fields after the harvest. The word
“kana” (“grain”) also means “particle,” “particular,” or “atom,” so the name Kanāda
(Kana-bhuk) literally means "atom-eater." Kanāda was the author of the Vaishesika
Sutra. The exact dates of the origin of Vaisesika have not been established; it is more
ancient than Nyāya, and may have preceded, but was at least contemporary with,
Buddhism and Jainism. The Vaishesika Sutra is thought to have been written
sometime after 300 B.C.E., possibly during the second to the fourth centuries C.E.
Around the fifth century, Prashastapāda wrote a commentary (Bhasya) on the
Vaishesika Sutra, and that was, in turn commented on by Vymasekharācārya,
Udayana (984 C.E.), Srivatsācārya, and Shrīdhara. Later, Vaisesika became blended
together with the Nyāya school, which accepted the Vaisesika ontology and further
developed its own epistemology. The Vaishesika school accepted only perception
(pratyaksha) and inference (anumāna) as valid sources of knowledge, while Nyāya
recognized four sources. Over the centuries, the school merged with the Nyaya system
of Indian philosophy to form the combined school of Nyaya-Vaisesika. The school
suffered a natural decline in India after the fifteenth century.
Kanāda did not mention God in the Vaishesika Sutra, but later commentators
recognized that the combinations of unchanging atoms and the operation of karma
could not produce an ordered universe without the direction and oversight of a God,
and Vaisesika came to share the same concept of God as the Nyāya school.
Vaisesika is a system of pluralistic realism, which emphasizes that reality
consists in difference. It classifies all objects of experience into seven padārtha, or
categories. Padārtha literally means an object which can be thought (jneya) and
named (abhidheya). The seven categories are: substance (dravya); quality (guna);
action (karma); generality (sāmānya); particularity (vishesa); inherence (samavāya);
and non-being (abhāvā). Originally Vaisesika recognized only the first six categories;
the category of non-being (abhāvā) was added later, at a time when Vaisesika became
more epistemological. Though Kanāda spoke of non-being in the Vaishesika Sutra, he
did not give it the status of a padārtha.
Substance (dravya)
A substance (dravya) is defined as “the substratum where actions and qualities
inhere.” “Substance is the basis of qualities and actions, actual or potential, present or
future. Simple, ultimate substances … are eternal, independent, individual and not
subject to production and destruction. All the compound substances (avayavidravya)
which … arise from these simple substances are necessarily transient, impermanent
and subject to production and destruction.” There are nine substances, five of which
are physical substances: Earth (prthivi), water (Ap), fire (tejas), air (vayu) and ether
(akasha). These are called elements; the first four, earth, water, fire and air, signify the
ultimate, indivisible atoms which make up the physical universe. Ether is not atomic,
but is infinite and eternal and forms the medium in which the atomic elements
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