Is cognition an attribute of the self or it rather belongs to the body? Some dialectical considerations on Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa’s position against Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika
Open Journal of Philosophy 1 (2):48-56 (2011)
| Abstract | In this article an attempt is made to detect what could have been the dialectical reasons that impelled the Cārvāka thinker Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa to revise and reformulate the classical materialistic concept of cognition. If indeed according to ancient Cārvākas, cognition is an attribute entirely dependent on the physical body, for Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa cognition is an independent principle that, of course, needs the presence of a human body for manifesting itself. Therefore, he seems to describe cognition according to a double ontology: it is both a principle and a characteristic, both independent and dependent. Two philosophical contexts – Vaiśeṣika and Nyāya – are here taken into account as possible anti-Cārvāka fault-finding points of view that spured Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa to reconsider the Cārvāka perspective. Although we do not have so much textual material on this particular aspect of the ancient and medieval philosophical debate in India, it nonetheless can be supposed that Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa’s reformulation of the concept of cognition was a tentative response to the Vaiśeṣika idea that cognition is not an attribute of the body, rather of the mind (which is here supposed to be eternal), and to the Naiyāyika perspective according to which cognition would be an attribute of an everlasting self. In the case of the Nyāya school, fortunately we have at our disposal the criticism put forward by Vātsyāyana against the materialistic conception of cognition during this time. By examining some Vātsyāyana’s objections, we will see that Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa’s idea of cognition really seems to have the aspect of a consistent answer to them, from a renewed materialistic point of view. | |||||||||
| Keywords | cognition Cārvāka philosophical materialism Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa Vaiśeṣika Nyāya Vātsyāyana | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
  |
| External links |
 Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRamkrishna Bhattacharya (forthcoming). Commentators on the Cārvākasūtra: A Critical Survey. Journal of Indian Philosophy.
Karl H. Potter (ed.) (1977). Indian Metaphysics and Epistemology: The Tradition of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Up to Gaṅgeśa. Motilal Banarsidass.
Harsh Narain (1976). Evolution of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Categoriology. Bharati Prakashan.
Karl H. Potter & Sibajiban Bhattacharyya (1970). Indian Philosophical Analysis, Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika From Gangeśa to Raghunātha Śiromaṇi. In Karl H. Potter (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Motilal Banarsidass.
Bimal Krishna Matilal (1977). Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika. Harrassowitz.
Sadananda Bhaduri (1947). Studies in Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Metaphysics. Poona, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
M. C. Bhartiya (1973). Causation in Indian Philosophy (with Special Reference to Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika). Ghaziabad, U.P.,Vimal Prakashan.
Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya (1994). Samavāya and the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Realism. Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar.
Will Rasmussen (2009). The Realism of Universals in Plato and Nyāya. Journal of Indian Philosophy 37 (3).
Anna-Pya Sjödin (2012). The Girl Who Knew Her Brother Would Be Coming Home: Ārṣajñāna in Praśastapādabhāṣya, Nyāyakandalī and Vyomavatī. Journal of Indian Philosophy 40 (4):469-488.
Monima Chadha (2001). Perceptual Cognition: A Nyaya-Kantian Approach. Philosophy East and West 51 (2):197-209.
P. I. Gradinarov (1990). Phenomenology and Indian Epistemology: Studies in Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Transcendental Logic and Atomism. Ajanta Books International.
Vibha (1987). The Nyāya Concept of Abhāva. Sole Distribution, Indu Prakashan.
Umesha Mishra (1936). Conception of Matter According to Nyāya-Vaicesika. Krishna Das Gupta, Benares].
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-10-14Total downloads28 ( #44,113 of 549,122 )Recent downloads (6 months)16 ( #3,908 of 549,122 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
