Vaisheshika

Vaiśeṣika

A realist, atomist account of the categories of reality.

Editorial overviewThe Vaisheshika Sutras, attributed to Kanada, are placed by scholars between roughly the last centuries BCE and the early centuries CE; Prashastapada's work (c. 5th–6th century) systematised the school.

In simple words

Vaisheshika tries to list every basic kind of thing that exists, and explains the physical world as built out of tiny, indivisible atoms. Knowing reality correctly, it says, is the way to freedom.

Overview

Vaisheshika ("pertaining to distinctions") is a system of natural philosophy and ontology. It classifies everything that exists into categories (padarthas): substance, quality, action, universal, particularity and inherence, with absence added later. Physical things are composed of eternal, partless atoms of earth, water, fire and air, combined in stages; space, time, ether, minds and selves are further substances. Like Nyaya, it holds that selves are eternal substances and that liberation comes from true knowledge of the categories. The school merged with Nyaya, which supplied its epistemology, while Vaisheshika supplied the ontology.

Scholar’s note

Adrishta (unseen force) explains phenomena such as the first motion of atoms and the working of merit and demerit. Early Vaisheshika may have been non-theistic; the role of God as efficient cause becomes explicit in later Nyaya-Vaisheshika.

Core questions

?What kinds of things exist?
?What are physical things made of?
?How do wholes relate to their parts?
?What is the self, and how is it different from matter?

How it sees

Editorial overview

What problem is it trying to solve?: What is the true structure of reality, knowledge of which leads to the highest good?
What does it consider real?: The categories: substance (nine kinds, including atoms, space, time, selves and minds), quality, action, universal, particularity, inherence, and later absence.
What is valid knowledge?: Two: perception and inference; testimony and other means are treated as forms of inference. (Later syncretic Nyaya-Vaisheshika accepted Nyaya's four.)
What is the Self?: The self is an eternal, all-pervading substance, the substrate of qualities such as cognition, desire and effort, which arise through contact with a mind.
What causes bondage?: Ignorance of the true nature of the categories, leading to desire, action and the accumulation of merit and demerit (adrishta) that binds the self to rebirth.
What is liberation?: The cessation of the self's specific qualities, including pain, so that it is no longer embodied.
What is the path?: True knowledge of the categories, together with the practice of dharma, which the Sutras say leads to prosperity and the highest good.

Core concepts

Conceptतत्त्वTattva — principle of reality'Thatness' — a basic category or principle of reality, counted differently by different schools.Conceptआत्मन्Atman — the SelfThe innermost Self — what you are beneath body, mind and personality.Conceptधर्मDharmaWhat upholds — order, duty, right conduct, and the nature of things.Conceptमोक्षMoksha — liberationFinal freedom from bondage and the cycle of rebirth.Conceptप्रमाणPramana — means of valid knowledgeThe accepted sources of valid knowledge, such as perception, inference and testimony.Conceptकर्मKarmaAction — and the way actions shape future experience.

Primary texts

Major thinkers

ThinkerकणादKanadaDates are highly uncertain; scholars' estimates for the Vaisheshika Sutras range from several centuries BCE to the early centuries CE.

Where it disagrees

Stated neutrally. The purpose is understanding, not a verdict.

With Sankhya · causation
Vaisheshika holds that an effect is a new entity not pre-existing in its cause.
With Buddhist philosophy · wholes and universals
Buddhist thinkers argue that only momentary particulars are real; Vaisheshika defends real wholes, universals and inherence.

Traditionन्यायNyayaMerged with Nyaya as Nyaya-Vaisheshika Traditionजैन दर्शनJain philosophyJain philosophy also has an atomic theory of matter, developed differently Traditionबौद्ध दर्शनBuddhist philosophyBuddhist schools criticised Vaisheshika's enduring wholes and universals

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Questions

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