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Re: six schools of philosophies
In article <4htuee$9k8@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
Mani Varadarajan <mani@srirangam.esd.sgi.com> wrote:
>There are six orthodox (Astika) schools of Indian
>philosophy. The only reason they are orthodox is
>that the accept the validity and preterpersonal
>nature of the Veda, *not* because they say anything
>about belief in an Absolute.
I have heard it said that _none_ of these schools is necessarily
aastika (theistic) or naastika (atheistic). For any given school,
there are aastika and naastika versions. It is said that any
philosophical point of view about any subject can be expressed as the
view of one of these schools, or as the mixture of such views. Thus,
these six systems form a generating set using which one can form any
kind of philosophy there is.
Each of these systems has its own "Suutra" or text of canonical
aphorisms. Of these, the Vedanta-Suutra or Brahma-Suutra of
BaadaraayaNa a.k.a. Veda Vyaasa is most commonly studied; among the
rest, the Saankhya-Suutra of Kapila, the Miimaamsaa-Suutra of Jaimini,
and the Yoga-Suutra of Patanjali are still extant.
While certain versions of these schools do accept the Vedas, some
others don't, or even put down the Vedas as being of secondary
importance in spiritual inquiry -- for example, the Nyaaya school
believes it can derive the existence of a Supreme Being, etc., using
logic alone. This cuts down on the importance of the Vedas, which are
then thought to be repeating things otherwise known.
Thus, rather than say that these schools accept the validity of the
Vedas, it is better to say that these schools all accept the existence
of atiindriya-padaarthas (extra-sensory entities), and accept that a
proper grasp of such, rather than mere sensory satisfaction,
constitutes fulfilment of one's life.
>nyAya / vaisesika -- two different schools which later
> joined theoretical hands. Neither of these promulgate
The six schools are sometimes paired-off as nyaaya-vaisheshika,
saankhya-yoga, and miimaamsaa-vedanta, because this pairing expresses
the relative closeness of each system to others in the best possible
way. However, I don't know if historically, nyaaya and vaisheshika
have completely coalesced to any greater extent than have the other
pairs.
> Vaisesika can be best described as atomism. The universe
> is analyzed as a compound of minute atomic particles.
It is true that KaNaada, a Vaisheshika scholar, is said to have first
spoken of the 'paramANu' as the smallest constituent of all matter,
and is thus held by some to be a forerunner of Dalton. However, the
paramANu is not the central theme of Vaisheshika philosophy. As the
name suggests, 'visheshha' or "specialty" is. The Vaisheshikas believe
in describing every kind of entity in terms of said entity's unique
characteristic. This is the cause of their closeness to Nyaaya; such
analysis using cardinal properties often involves the use of logical
reasoning to a significant extent, which brings Vaisheshikas into the
Naiyaayikas' province.
> NyAya basically means logic.
It literally means rationality or fairness. Because Naiyaayikas rely
on logic to a great degree, they are also called Taarkikas, or
logicians.
Regards,
Shrisha Rao
>Mani
