10 December 2024 
6 mins Introduction To Indian Philosophies
In the Hindu tradition, the Vedas, estimated to be composed ~1500BCE, are considered to be the origin of the philosophical systems. Although one finds "exemplary spirit of inquiry" into "the one being" (ekam sat), "predelineations of concepts of rta ("moral order"), karma, the gunas, and prakrti (constituting nature), the Upanishads present a strictly philosophical character.
Among the many different themese belonging to cosmology ("how did one being become many?") and psychology ("what does the empirical person consist of?") we find attemps to reinterpret, in symbolic terms, the elaborate Vedic sacrifices, and, in the long run, a multifacered defense of one cenral philosophical thesis: the identification of the brahman (i.e. the highest and the greatest, the source of all things) with the atman (i.e. the self within each person).
The Vedas in the Nasadiya Sukta present a cosmic origin that both monistic (there must have been a being and not nonbeing) and agnostic (noncommital about that being God); while the Upanishads present a case that this primeval being is the same as the spirit within. The highest wisdom was intuitively realizing this identity (tat twam asi). The various schools (darshana) and their devout proponents and commentators (Bhashyakara) dispute on the different aspects of this identity.
On the non-Vedic (Nastika)[1] side of Indian philosophy, there is the Buddhist school initiated by Gautama through his fourfold Noble Truths and the Eightfold path (marga).
In his sermons and conversations, Gautama avoided metaphysical questions and insisted only on teaching the path to deliverance from suffering. But Buddhism, very early on, was commited to certain philosophical beliefs: rejection of the Upanishadic thesis of atman, a rejection of any permanent substance (of which the no-self doctrine may be regarded as a specific application), a belief in a strict principle of causal dependence (trsna) to which all existence is subject, belief in karma abd rebirth, and the belief in the eventual deliverance (nirvana).
Even within Vedic literature, skeptics like Samjaya is said to have used illocutionary negations like "I do not saythere is an afterlife and I do not say there is no after life". Texts like Sutrakrtanga and Sangarava Sutra bear evidence that there were plurslistic philosophies, some even opposed to brahmanism or Vedic thought as it spread east and south across the Gangetic valley. Pre-Buddhist schools like the Ajivakas and their proponents like Makkhali Gosala, Purana Kassapa, Ajita Kesakambali, and Pakudha Kaccayana have had huge influence on both Buddhism and Jainism - the two major non-Vedic philosophical schools.
Mahavira, the older contemporary of Gautama, regarded as the last perfected soul (tithankara) of the Jainism school, rejects a creator of the Universe, looked upon the world as consisting of infinite souls and matter, construed the embodiment of souls as being due to karmic matter (thus having a completely new, materialistic theory of karma), and believed in the possibility of the individual attaining perfection through austere practices and comtemplative knowledge.
Jainism, in particular, developed a sophisticated phisolophy of Nyaya based on their belief of anantadharmatmakam vastu (things have infinite aspects and no philosophical conceptualization can exhaust its nature). Finally, the Lokayatas maintain the materialistic position that "this world extends only to the limits of possible sense-perception".
It is notable that the above non-Vedic schools, while rejecting the Vedas, did not entirely reject the Upanishadic thoughts. Each of them reject some of the thoughts or have a different interpretation of the same. In fact, it is pertinent to express these ideas as vadas (opinions/positions) - yadrcchavada (where the world is contingent), svabhavavada (where the world is determined by the nature of things and natural laws), adrstavada, adhyatmadavada (theis that the supreme atman is within oneself), hetuvada (where the world is caused by a cause). dehatmavada (the thesis that the self is the body), anekantavada (the thesis that reality has many aspects and that there is no absolute reality), akhyativada (doctrine that the object of illusion is due to the difference between the seen and the remembered objects).
In this way, one can study the various philosophies as an interaction or a conversation, especially since the modern religious extensions of these schools have become more dogmatic, and have exuberant in their practices and rituals.
1. Pramana Sastra (Theory of Knowledge)
Two Sanskrit terms that were often used, especially in the Upanishads were cit and jnana - Mohanty translates them as "consciousness" and "congnition" respectively [2]. He also defines knowledge as paramajnana (the congnitions that are True).
Take for instance the question - what is the ontological nature of consciousness? The various answers considered were
- It is a quality (essential or an emergent) of the self to which it belongs
- It is an act of the self
- It is a "substance" that is identical with the self or that self is consciousness.
The Samkya, Vendanta, and the Buddhist Vijnanavadin schools align with the third view, but with subtle differences.
All the above excerpts are attributed to their original author(s). Book info -
J. N. Mohanty, Classical Indian Philosophy, 2021. Dev Pulishers & Distributors, India. ISBN-13: 9789387496682
| [1] | Although there is a lot of nuance and re-interpretation in the meaning of Nastika and Astika, a generally accepted distinction is that the former denies the authority of the Vedas, while the latter accepts it. |
| [2] | Cognition is often defined as a representational state whereas knowledge is a propositional state that includes a judgement. |
