The Character of Logic in India

194 Pages·1998·5.53 MB·English

by  Bimal Krishna Matilal, H. Tiwari, J. Ganeri (eds.)

THE CHARACTER
OF
LOGIC IN INDIA
BIMAL KRISHNA MATILAL
(COURTESY OF MRS. KARABI MATILAL)
THE CHARACTER
OF
LOGIC IN INDIA
BIMAL KRISHNA MATILAL
Edited by Jonardon Ganeri and Heeraman Tiwari
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
SUNY SERIES IN INDIAN THOUGHT:
TEXTS AND STUDIES
WILHELM HALBFASS, EDITOR
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
©1998 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Matilal, Bimal Krishna.
The character of logic in India/Bimal Krishna Matilal : edited
by Jonardon Ganeri and Heeraman Tiwari.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in Indian thought)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-3739-6 (he : acid free). — ISBN 0-7914-3740-X (pb
acid free)
1. Logic—India—History. I. Ganeri, Jonardon. II. Tiwari
Heeraman. IE. Title. IV. Series.
160'.954—dc21 97-19873
CIP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
CONTENTS
Editors' Foreword vii
1. Introducing Indian Logic 1
2. Debates and Directives 31
3. Tricks and Checks in Debate 60
4. Difmäga: A New Era in Logical Thinking 88
5. Dharmakirti and the Problem of Induction in India 108
6. The Jaina Contribution to Logic 127
7. Navya-Nyäya: Technical Developments in the
New School since 1300 AD 140
Philosophers Discussed 169
Bibliography 171
Index 177

EDITORS' FOREWORD
Matilal planned this book around 1988, in conjunction with the Institut
International de Philosophie in Paris. He wrote most of it during the years
1989 to 1991. The structure of the book suggests comparison with Kneale
and Kneale's The Development of Logic, that is, to be a book in which the
origins of logical theory in India are traced chronologically, while paying at
the same time careful attention to their philosophical significance. He would
perhaps have agreed with Kneale and Kneale, who described the primary
purpose of their work as having been "to record the first appearances of those
ideas which seem to us most important in the logic of our own day" (1964:
v). Writing this book provided Matilal with an opportunity to present what he
took to be the most distinctive features of Indian logic, and to elaborate his
views on the nature of philosophical activity in classical India. There is,
however, a single central theme to this book, namely an inquiry into the
origins, development, and nature of the Indian concept of an "inference-
warranting relation" (vyäpti), often called the relation of "concomitance" or
"pervasion," between the reason or evidence and the inferred conclusion.
Matilal traces the origins of this concept to the early debating manuals, where
the first attempts to demarcate the good or rational patterns of argument from
the bad or irrational ones are to be found. He traces its development to two
Buddhist logicians, Dinnäga and Dharmakirti, who were largely responsible
for the construction of a clearly-articulated theory of the relation, as well as
to Gangesa and his Navya-nyäya school, where the proper definition and
analysis of the relation came to be an all-important concern.
The following brief outline charts the course taken in the book. In the
first chapter, having given an introductory overview of the topics to be dis-
cussed in later chapters, Matilal reconstructs the Indian theory of inference in