[INDOLOGY] nyaya and regress

[Howard Resnick]

Thanks Brendan. That was my impression, regarding itaretarāśṛaya and anavasthā. 

Interestingly, in recent Western epistemology, coherentism, which is essentially itaretarāśraya, has been put forward as perhaps the major challenger to various versions of foundationalism, the Aristotelian escape from an infinite regress of proofs, anavasthā, through a self-evident foundation, svataḥ pramāna, a notion found in various places in Indian philosophy. 

Ironically, coherentists praise the itaretarāśraya as epistemically sufficient. They cite images like a spider’s web, or other networks, where all the parts, depending on each other, form a holistic truth system. This coherentist hallmark of “a system of mutually supporting beliefs," seems to literally translate itaretarāśraya.

It strikes me, though, that coherentism itself rests upon an obvious foundation -- the belief that coherence somehow indicates veracity.

As we know, many conceptual, dialectic, and analytic elements in Indian intellectual history have much to say to Western philosophy, in this case to epistemology.

Thanks again for the valuable help.
Best wishes,
Howard

> On Jun 8, 2024, at 5:07 PM, Brendan S. Gillon, Prof. via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> The quick answer is that itaretarāśṛaya is akin to circularity and anavasthā  to infinite regress.
> 
> Brendan Gillon
> 
> On 2024-06-08 12:02, Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY 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> <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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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> -- 
> 
> Brendan S. Gillon                       email: brendan.gillon at mcgill.ca <mailto:brendan.gillon at mcgill.ca>
> Department of Linguistics
> McGill University                       tel.:  001 514 398 4868 
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