Gautama Akszapada

Dzieła

• ok. 150Nyaya Sutra

  Szesnaście tematów, od środków ważnego poznania po sztuczki nieuczciwej debaty: wyzwolenie przez właściwe poznanie.

Stanowisko

Nyaya (“method” or “logic”) holds that the world exists independently of us and can be known. The sutra lists sixteen topics, beginning with the means of valid knowledge (pramanas): perception, inference, comparison and reliable testimony. Inference is set out in five steps – thesis, reason, example, application, conclusion: the hill has fire, because it has smoke; wherever there is smoke there is fire, as in a kitchen. The text also distinguishes honest discussion from debate aimed at victory and from mere cavilling, and catalogues fallacies and tricks. Liberation follows when right knowledge removes false cognition. Joined to Vaisheshika ontology, Nyaya was developed by Udayana and transformed by Gangesha.

Życie i kontekst

Akshapada Gautama is the name tradition gives the author of the Nyaya Sutra; a legend explains “Akshapada” (“eyes in the feet”) by a thinker so lost in thought he needed eyes in his feet. Nothing reliable is known about him. The sutra grew in layers, probably reaching its present form around the 2nd–3rd century CE; some passages seem to answer Buddhist critics such as Nagarjuna, though this is debated.

Pojawia się w

• Podróż „Kto decyduje, co jest wiedzą?” · Przystanek 1 z 9
• Podróż „Ścieżki myśli indyjskiej” · Przystanek 6 z 9