Vaisheshika

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Vaisheshika ( Sanskrit , n. वैशेषिक, Vaisesika ) is one of six classical systems of Indian philosophy . The founder of the tradition is Canada , who is said to have written the Vaisheshika Sutras. The period of Vaisheshika spans the first centuries before Christianity to around 700 AD. It is a teaching of natural philosophy whose aim was to record natural phenomena.

Element theory

In its theory of the elements, the Vaisheshika is based on five elements: earth ( prithivi ), water ( apa ), fire ( teja ), air ( vayu ) and ether ( akasha ). These elements are characterized by certain properties. The earth by firmness, the water by liquid, the fire by heat and the air by mobility. In addition, the elements have a second set of properties that make up the objects of sensory perception: form ( rupa ), taste ( rasa ), smell ( gandha ), touch ( sparsha ) and sound ( shabda ). Earth has "shape, taste, smell and touch". Water has "shape, taste and touch". Fire has "form and touch". Air only has "touch" (wind). The object of the fifth sense, the “sound”, has the fifth element as its carrier, the ether, which only has this property. The other properties are not contained in the ether. Since the sound spreads everywhere, it was assumed that the ether was all-pervasive.

Attempts were made to categorize the world of appearances by making lists of all properties. So were z. B. six types of taste ( rasa ) assumed: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot and tart. The lists for the properties of touch and shape were more extensive. Light and shadow caused greater difficulties. Gradually the realization took hold that the shadow is nothing other than the absence of light.

According to the Vaisheshika, man consists of a body and a soul. The soul itself is the bearer of the spiritual personality and it is also what passes from one embodiment to the other at death. The soul is also the carrier of psychic events. The Vaisheshika does not know a subtle body. Besides the soul there is only the gross body. This consists of earth. Earth is the element that has most, namely four, properties. The Vaisheshika from the earliest times showed an aversion to accepting a mixture of the elements. The plants were not counted among the living beings. Gods, humans and animals were named as beings that populate the world (but the gods were only marginally dealt with).

Atomic theory

One of the most remarkable teachings produced by Vaisheshika is the atomic doctrine: “When one divides something, this decomposition goes down to the atom. Namely, one speaks of the atom ( paramanu , i.e. extremely small), because the sequence of smaller and smaller ones comes to an end here because there is nothing smaller. If we break a lump of earth into its parts, the following becomes smaller and smaller. ”The atoms are identical in shape. They have certain properties, namely the characteristic properties of the respective element.

Everything that happens is based on movement, on push and counter-push, which are caused by eternal natural forces. It is the movement that brings the atoms together and makes things come into being. And it is movement again, which breaks the cohesion of the so united atoms and destroys things.

Ideas of the soul

With regard to the contemplation of the soul , Vaisheshika went through an evolution. The doctrine of a world soul was alien to him at first, but numerous individual souls were accepted. While in the early phase the souls were viewed as fundamentally equivalent factors in the construction of the phenomenal world, they were later recognized as being essentially different. In place of the body-sized souls wandering in the cycle of being, the idea of ​​their infinite size and eternal immobility had taken place. After the properties had lost their firm connection with the soul, the conception of the soul of Vaisheshika became more and more similar to that of Atman in the Upanishads , but without adopting their concept of salvation ( Moksha ).

Category theory

The doctrine of categories represents the most important part of Vaisheshika and builds on the older doctrine of elements. The orthodox Vaisheshika system, as represented by Prashastapada (6th century AD), knows six categories: substance, quality, movement, commonality, particularity and inherence . All these categories have three characteristics in common, the presence ( Astitvam ), the recognizability ( Jneyatvam ) and the namability ( Abhidheyatvam ). These categories are not independent beings, but different forms of being, which are only possible in connection with one another. The substances represent the carriers, all other categories are attached to the substances. There are nine substances:

a) the elements earth, water, fire and air . These are eternal insofar as they consist of atoms. B) Ether, space and time are considered to be all-pervading, eternal and are each one. c) the souls , there are two types of souls, an omniscient soul d. H. God and a great number of individual souls. d) Manas, the organ of thought, is assumed to be as small as atoms and in just as many numbers as souls, since every soul has a manas that establishes the connection between the soul and the outside world.

theism

The idea of ​​an Ishvara , a ruler of the world, is not explicitly mentioned in the sutras of Canada. There are passages which, in the opinion of commentators, deal with him as the author of the Veda . The moral world order and the legal course of the world process that is conditioned by it seem to be explained for Canada solely by the progressive power of good and bad works ( adrishta ). Since there is no commentary on the sutras, one can only assume that the assumption of a world ruler was left to the religious feeling of the individual. In a later explanatory text of the Prashastapada (probably 5th century) the great Lord of the World ( Maheshvara ) is mentioned for the first time in this system , who sets the periodic creation and destruction of the world in motion. The commentators on Prashastapada's book, Udayana and Shridhara , represented theism , in which all later commentators followed them.

See also

literature

Web links