Padārtha
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Padārtha is a Sanskrit word for "categories" in Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools of Indian philosophy.[1][2]
Etymology
[edit]The term padārtha is a portmanteau of pada, "word" and artha, "meaning" or "referent", and so the term padārtha indicates "the meaning or referent of words".[3]
Philosophical significance
[edit]Almost all of India's philosophical systems accept liberation as life's ultimate goal; it is the summum bonum. Each philosophy prescribes the means to that end independently. According to Aksapada Gautama, liberation can be attained by true knowledge of the categories or padārthas.[4] According to the Vaisheshika school, all things that exist, which can be conceptualized, and that can be named are padārthas, the objects of experience.
Types
[edit]Vaisheshika
[edit]According to Vaisheshika, padārtha or objects of experience can be divided as bhāva and abhāva. The bhāva padārthas are of six types, while non-existence was added later.[3] These are:
- Dravya (substance) an entity having guna and karma
- Guṇa (quality), the substrate of substance, devoid of action
- Karma (activity), transient and dynamic, i.e., upward movement, downward movement, contraction, expansion, and locomotion
- Sāmānya (generality), the classicism of the substances i.e. papa, apara, parapara
- Viśeṣa (particularity)
- Samavāya (inherence)
Later Vaiśeṣikas such as Śrīdhara, Udayana and Śivāditya added abhāva, non-existence.[5]
Nyaya
[edit]Nyāya metaphysics recognizes sixteen padārthas, the second of which, called prameya, includes the six (or seven) categories of the Vaiśeṣika school.[5] They are:
- Pramāṇa (valid means of knowledge),
- Prameya (objects of valid knowledge),
- Saṃśaya (doubt),
- Prayojana (aim),
- Dṛṣṭānta (example),
- Siddhānta (conclusion),
- Avayava (members of syllogism),
- Tarka (hypothetical reasoning),
- Nirṇaya (settlement),
- Vāda (discussion),
- Jalpa (wrangling),
- Vitaṇḍā (cavilling),
- Hetvābhāsa (fallacy),
- Chala (quibbling),
- Jāti (sophisticated refutation)
- Nigrahasthāna (point of defeat)
Western philosophy
[edit]Padārthas are distinct from the categories of Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel. According to Aristotle, categories are logical classification of predicates; Kant states that categories are only patterns of understanding, while Hegel’s categories are dynamic stages in the development of thought. The Vaiśeṣika categories are a metaphysical classification of all knowable objects.
Aristotle accepts ten categories:
- Substance
- Quality
- Quantity
- Relation
- Place
- Time
- Posture
- Property
- Activity
- Passivity
The Vaiśeṣikas instead place the concepts of time and place under substance; relation under quality; inherence, quantity and property under quality. Passivity is considered the opposite of activity. Akṣapāda Gautama enumerates sixteen padārthas.[6]
See also
[edit]- Vaisheshika#The Categories or Padārtha
- Nyaya#Sixteen categories (padārthas)
- Categories_(Aristotle)
- Kanada
References
[edit]- ^ Padārtha, Jonardon Ganeri (2014), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- ^ Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls (1951). Materials for the Study of Navya-nyāya Logic. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 37–39. ISBN 978-81-208-0384-8.
- ^ a b Mishra, Umesh (1987). Conception of matter according to Nyayavaisesika. Delhi: Gian Publishing House. pp. 345–347.
- ^ Ganeri, Jonardon. "Analytic Philosophy in Early Modern India". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ a b "Padartha, aka: Padārtha; 7 Definition(s)". Wisdom library. 21 July 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ Edwards, Paul. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. II. p. 46.