28. Jayatīrtha: The Nectar of Logic
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Michael T. Williams [+]
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Description
The text for this entry is taken from Jayatīrtha’s Nyāyasudhā, which was written in the fourteenth century. One of the most important works in the Dvaita tradition of Vedānta, the text gives a critical discussion of most of the major philosophies in India. The entry focuses on Jayatīrtha’s critique of the Cārvāka school, who are often referred to as “materialist” or “atheist” philosophers. These radical thinkers denied the existence of god and a self distinct from the body, along with the efficacy of Vedic ritual practices and the belief in transmigratory existence (saṃsāra). These philosophers sometimes claimed that sense-perception is the only means of knowledge. In this passage Jayatīrtha, an avowed theist, gives a refutation of this view, arguing that the Cārvākas’ theories about sense-perception and inference are incompatible with the practice of philosophical reasoning itself. In the course of his critique, Jayatīrtha delves into the Cārvākas’ theory of self, arguing that sense-perception itself establishes the existence of a self distinct from the body.