Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge c8.243.3

c8.243.3

The Materialists are often called the 'haitukas',¹ probably because they used epistemological arguments or arguments based on hetu- in the sense of 'means of knowledge' to prove their theories or disprove their opponents (*v. supra*, 91). They may very well have been the first to use the term in this sense. The fact that the Jains did not use the term exclusively in the epistemological sense is clear from the rest of the quotation of Vidyābhūsana from the Bhaga-vatī and the Sthānānga Sūtra, where *heu* is used in the sense of 'reason' in a formula bearing a close resemblance to the general causal formula appearing in the Pāli Nikāyas (*v. infra*, 771): athavā heu cauvvihe pannatte tam jahā, atthi tam atthi so heu, atthi tam natthi so heu, natthi tam atthi so heu, natthi tam natthi so heu, i.e the reasons (heu) are declared to be four-fold, the reason why something exists because something else exists, the reason why something exists because some-thing else does not exist, the reason why something does not exist because something else exists, the reason why something does not exist because something else does not exist. As the examples given by Vidyābhūsana would show (*loc. cit.*), they are four kinds of possible correlations between causally connected events or things Thus, if x (fire) and y (smoke) are causally connected we can say that x is present because y is present, y being the reason (hetu) why we say that x is present. We may represent the four instances thus.