Essay name: The Navya-Nyaya theory of Paksata (Study)
Author:
Kazuhiko Yamamoto
Affiliation: Savitribai Phule Pune University / Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages
This essay studies the Navya-Nyaya theory of Paksata within Indian logic by exploring the Paksataprakarana on the Tattvacintamani of Gangesa Upadhyaya and the Didhiti of Raghunata Siromani. The term 鈥減aksa鈥� originally meant a subject or proposition but evolved to signify a key logical term, representing the subject of an inference or the locus of inference.
Section 1 - History and Development of the Concept of Paksata
14 (of 69)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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LOGICAL MEANINGS OF PAKSA
Buddhist logicians developed paksa as a logical term. In
the Vadavidhi, Vasubandhu (ca. AD 400-480) used paksa as a
logical term. Its usage is a proposition. 1
Dignaga (ca. AD 480-540) thought of three kinds of paksa
2 i. e. the proposition (pratijna), the subject (paksa), and the
probandum (sadhya) But he mainly used paksa as the proposition.
He merely suggested that property-possessor (dharmin) can be
called subject (paksa) because a word which suggests the whole
can be used to suggest its part. That is, proposition (paksa) is
a whole for the parts which are a subject (paksa), a probandum
(sadhya), and probans (sadhana). The subject possesses the
probandum and the probans. The subject is a property-possessor
(dharmin) and the probandum and the probans are properties
(dharma). Both the property-possessor and the properties can be
called paksa. We can know that paksa is applied to the subject
by Dignaga. But at the same time, the age of paksa was started by
Dignaga.
3 1. pakso vic膩ra峁嚹亂膩m isto 'rthah. (Frauwallner 1957: 747).
Cf. (NV: 280) for the commentary for the NS 1. 1. 33. Cf. (Randle
1926: 27).
2. (Katsura 1977: 121f.).
3. pakso dharmi, avayave samudayopacarat.
samudayarthasadhyatvad dharmamatre 'tha dharmini, amukhye 'py
ekadesatv膩t sadhyatvam upacaryate. Ibid. 120f.
