Indian logic

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In the narrower sense, the system of logic that represents one of the six schools of Indian philosophy ( Nyaya ) is called Indian logic . In a broader sense, one includes Buddhist and Jain logic. It represents all the teachings of the logic of Indian scholars. Indian logic is one of the three traditional logics , along with Greek logic and Chinese logic .

Origins

The history of Indian logic spans more than 23 centuries. In the 6th century BC Medhatithi Gautama founded the Anviksiki as a school of logic. The epic Mahabharata invokes both Anviksiki and Tarka as a logical instance. The Sanskrit - grammarian Panini has developed a set of regulations for the Sanskrit that some common ground with the logic of George Boole has to formulate with it the grammar of the language. Furthermore, Indian logic was influenced by the philosophical system of Vaisheshika , the deductive analysis of Gautama Rishi and in the tetralemma of Nagarjuna . The 129th hymn of the 10th circle of the Rigveda , the Nasadiya Sukta , contains ontological speculations on which various logical classifications can be carried out, which were later transformed into the judgment square of the catuskoti : "A", "not A", "A and not A "as well as" not (A and not A) ". In Arthashastra , Chanakya (from 350–283 BC) describes logic as a field independent of the testing of the Anviksiki .

Six schools

Vaisheshika

The Vaisheshika is one of the six Hindu schools of Indian philosophy . It is closely related to the Hindu school of Nyaya logic. The Vaisheshika takes an atomistic point of view and postulates that all physical objects in the universe can be broken down into a finite number of atoms. It was originally proposed by Canada in the 2nd century BC.

Tetralemma

In the 2nd century AD, the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna developed the logical form of the tetralemma, also known as catuskoli.

Nyaya

Nyaya is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy, especially the school of logic. The Nyaya is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutra , written by Gautama Rishi in the 2nd century AD. The most important contribution to Indian logic is its teaching of the method . This method is based on its logical system, which has been adopted by almost all other Indian schools. The situation here is similar to that of Aristotelian logic , which has significantly influenced western science and philosophy. Nyana believers believe that attaining valid knowledge is the only way to achieve relief from suffering. Therefore, they go to great lengths to identify valid sources of knowledge and to distinguish them from mere false opinions. According to the school of Nyana, there are four sources of knowledge ( pramana ): perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), comparison (upamana) and verbal communication (shabda). Knowledge claims based on them can of course still be either valid or invalid. In response, many Nyaya scholars took the arduous path to identify what makes claims to knowledge valid. During this process, they created some explanatory systems.

Logic of Jainism

The Jainism yielded a unique contribution to the development of logic, since it with epistemological addressed problems of the nature of knowledge, how knowledge can be acquired and how you can say that knowledge claims are in fact terms reliable. Jain logic had its heyday between the 6th century BC. Until the 17th century. When referring to Jainists, the ultimate principle should always be logical. No principle can be without any logic and justification.

Consequently, in some Jain texts, one finds advisory encouragement for every subject in all its properties, be they constructive or obstructive, inferring or analytical, enlightening or harmful. Jainists come with their relativistic beliefs, which are used for logic and argumentation.

These Jain philosophical concepts contain important contributions from ancient Indian philosophy, especially in the areas of skepticism and relativism .

The following list includes philosophers of Jainism who contributed to the logic of Jainism:

  • Kundakunda (2nd century AD); Representative of the Jain mysticism and the anekantavada , a doctrine that addresses the nature of the soul and its pollution by matter.
  • Umasvati (2nd century AD); Author of the first Jain work, the Tattvarthasutra . He presents the Jain philosophy and all Jain sects in a systematized form.
  • Siddhasen Diwakar (5th century AD); Jain logician and author of several works in Sanskrit and Prakrit explaining the Jain viewpoint, knowledge and objects of knowledge.
  • Haribhadra (8th century AD); a Jain thinker, author and great proponent of anekantavada and classical yoga as a soteriological system in a Jain context.
  • Hemachandra (1089-1172 AD); a Jain thinker, author, historian , grammarian, and logician.
  • Yashovijaya (AD 1624-1688); Logician who is considered the last intellectual of Jain philosophy.

Buddhist logic

Buddhist logic is called Pramana and flourished between 500 and 1300 AD. Vasubandhu , Dignaga and Dharmakirti are considered to be the three main authors of the Pramana . The teaching of Trairupya (Sanskrit त्रैरूप्य) and the formal system of Hetuchakra (Sanskrit हेतुचक्र) are regarded as the most important theoretical achievements . Nevertheless, a living tradition of Buddhist logic and Tibetan Buddhist traditions has been preserved, as logic is an important part of the training of monks.

Navya-Nyaya

The Navya-Nyaya or the new logical school of Indian philosophy was founded in the 13th century by the Indian philosopher Gangesha Upadhyaya . It was a further development of the classical school of Nyaya. The school was also influenced by the work of the earlier philosophers Vachaspati Mishra (900 to 980 AD) and Udayana (late 10th century). Gangeshas book Tattvachintamani was partly in response to the work Khandanakhandakhadya of Shriharsha written a defense of the Advaita Vedanta of Nyaya criticized, among other things, the theories concerning the thought and language thoroughly. Gangesha critically examined the Shriharsha’s criticism of the Nyaya itself. He succeeded in where Shriharsha failed: to thoroughly doubt the realistic ontology . Both reviews, however, showed that the Nyaya's logical and linguistic tools needed improvement in order to make them more precise. The Tattvachintamani deals with all important aspects of Indian philosophy, logic, set theory and especially epistemology, which Gangeśa explicitly investigated. He developed and expanded the scheme of the Nyaya. The results, especially his analysis of the knowledge, were taken up by later members of the school.

The Navya-Nyaya developed a sophisticated language and a conceptual scheme that makes it possible to analyze and solve logical and epistemological problems. It systematizes all concepts of Nyaya into four main categories: senses or perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), comparison or similarity (upamana), and verbal communication (shabda).

Influence of Indian logic on modern logic

In the late 18th century, British scholars began to take an interest in Indian philosophy and discovered the sophistication of the Indian study of reasoning. This examination of Indian philosophy culminated in Henry Thomas Colebrooke's The Philosophy of the Hindus: On the Nyaya and Vaisesika Systems of 1924, which included an analysis of the argumentation and comparison with Aristotelian logic. The book results in the observation that the Aristotelian syllogisms are not relevant to the Indian syllogisms.

The mathematicians are today the influence of Indian mathematics aware of the European whereupon already Hermann Weyl in 1928 pointed.

Fyodor I. Shcherbatskoi and Satichandra Vidyabhushana are considered to be the two most important researchers of Indian logic in the 20th century .

literature

  • J. Ganeri (Ed.): Indian Logic: A Reader . Routledge Curzon, 2001.
  • KV Mardia: The Scientific Foundations of Jainism . Delhi 2002, ISBN 81-208-0658-1 .
  • Bimal Krishna Matilal: The Character of Logic in India . Albany (State University of New York Press) 1998, ISBN 0-7914-3740-X .
  • VVS Sarma: Indian Systems of Logic (Nyaya): A Survey , Proc. Bombay Logic Conference, 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rigveda 10.129 de sa 
  2. ^ Hermann Weyl : Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1976, p. 92 (first published in the series Handbuch der Philosophie . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1928)
  3. ↑ Fyodor Stcherbatskoy: Buddhist Logic , 2 vol., 1930-1932.
  4. ↑ Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana: A history of Indian logic. Ancient, mediaeval and modern schools. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1971.