Jump to content

Padārtha

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rich Farmbrough (talk | contribs) at 21:35, 19 March 2017 (External links: Fix spelling Encyclopaedia Britannica or similar; using AWB). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Padārtha is a Sanskrit word that refers to "categories" in Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy.[1][2] The term is a composite of pada (word, phrase) and artha (meaning), connoting in philosophical terms "a metaphysical correlate", or in other word categories that are different, distinct types of existent.[1][3][4]

The concept was introduced by Kanada, the founder of Vaisheshika school. He suggested six padarthas in Vaisheshika Sutra. Later scholars, particularly of the Navya Nyaya school,[2] added abhava, bringing the list to seven, states Ganeri:[1] substance (dravya), quality (guṇa), motion or action (karma), universal (sāmānya), particularity or differentiator (viśeṣa), inherence (samavāya), and absence (abhāva). Each of the seven categories were further sub-divided in an attempt to explain the nature of universe, repetitive phenomenon and existence of living beings. For example, these schools proposed nine types of substance, twenty four types of quality, and so on.[1][3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Padārtha, Jonardon Ganeri (2014), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. ^ a b Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls (1951). Materials for the Study of Navya-nyāya Logic. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 37–39. ISBN 978-81-208-0384-8.
  3. ^ a b Roy W. Perrett (2001). Indian Philosophy: Metaphysics. Taylor & Francis. pp. xiii, 1–3. ISBN 978-0-8153-3608-2.
  4. ^ Maxim I. Stamenov (1991). Current Advances in Semantic Theory. John Benjamins. pp. 183–184. ISBN 978-90-272-7794-7.