[INDOLOGY] nyaya and regress

[Madhav Deshpande]

Dear Howard,

     Glad to remind you of your teacher, Professor Scharfe. As his book is
in German, it has not drawn as much attention in the Anglophone world.
     Itaretarāśraya is like a chicken and egg argument. Apratiṣṭhāna, as
brought up in the Brahmasūtra [tarkāpratiṣṭhānād anyathānumeyam iti ced
evam api avimokṣaprasaṅgaḥ] says that all Tarka is apratiṣṭhita, and hence
even if we bring up a superior Tarka, that superior Tarka can be shown to
be faulty by an even more superior Tarka. Thus, there is a resulting
Avimokṣa "no final solution." In an interesting way, this argument reminds
me of a line from Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra "bādhyante dhīviśeṣeṇa
yogino 'py uttarottaraiḥ" [this attribution is from my aging memory]. Here
the argument is that any Yogic experience can be superseded by a higher
level Yogic experience. This is also a sort of Anavasthā.
     Many systems have placed arbitrary limits to avoid Anavasthā. For
example, according to the  Nyāya-Vaiśrṣikas, there is a relationship of
Saṃyoga between the monkey and the branch upon which the monkey is sitting.
Now the Saṃyoga as a Guṇa relates to the monkey with the relation of
Samavāya, and the same Saṃyoga relates to the branch with another Samavāya.
Fine, but then what relation would connect the Samavāya to Saṃyoga? Does
this need another Samavāya? So there is an interesting regresso ad
infinitum situation. But the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣikas say that no further relation
is needed to connect a Samavāya to Saṃyoga. But this is quite arbitrary.

Thanks for bringing up this topic. Best wishes,

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USAg
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 9:03 AM Howard Resnick <hr at ivs.edu> wrote:

> Thank you Madhav for this information, and thank you for bringing to mind
> my first and much appreciated Sanskrit professor, Hartmut Scharfe, whom I
> studied with as an undergraduate  at UCLA.
>
> Regarding itaretarāśṛaya, often taken to mean ‘mutual dependence’, can
> this be seen as an indirect or oblique indication of infinite regress, by
> way of an apratiṣṭhāna, foundationless, situation?
>
> Thanks and best wishes!
> Howard
>
> On Jun 8, 2024, at 11:07 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:
>
> Another source for discussions of topics like Anavasthā and Itaretarāśraya
> may be Hartmut Scharfe's book: "Die Logik im Mahābhaāṣya," Berlin 1961.
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 6:47 AM Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Philipp. Very helpful.
>>
>> All the best,
>> Howard
>>
>> On Jun 8, 2024, at 3:00 AM, Philipp Maas via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Howard,
>> On *anavasthā *and related terms in various systems of thought, see also
>> Oberhammer, G. (1991). *Terminologie der frühen indischen Scholastik in
>> Indien*. Vol. 1. A-I. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der
>> Wissenschaften, p. 32f.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Philipp
>> __________________________
>>
>> Prof. Dr. Philipp A. Maas
>> Professor for Modern Indology
>> Institute of Indology and Tibetology
>> Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
>> ___________________________
>>
>> https://spp1448.academia.edu/PhilippMaas
>>
>>
>> Am Di., 4. Juni 2024 um 11:05 Uhr schrieb Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info>:
>>
>>> Dear Scholars,
>>>
>>> Does the nyāya system speak about the problem of an infinite regress of
>>> proofs? Aristotle famously identifies and then avoids this problem through
>>> the notion of a self-evident foundation or starting point of knowledge. In
>>> Western epistemology, this strategy is often called foundationalism.
>>>
>>> Is there anything at all similar or analagous in nyāya or other Indian
>>> schools? The Caitanya-caritāmṛta several times affirms that the Veda is
>>> ’self-evident’, svataḥ pramāṇa, but the term is not used there as a general
>>> or secular epistemic strategy. Is the CC simply repeating a well-known
>>> epistemic principle?
>>>
>>> All help will be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Howard
>>>
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>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
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>>>
>>
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>
>
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