The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.11

c11.11

The statement of the object of the system is of importance in that it brings out clearly the fundamental pre-suppositions on which the Sāṃkhya, like the other philosophical systems, rests. It is assumed as self-evident that the world is a condition of misery, that the soul is subject to transmigration, and that there is some degree of truth at least in the Vedic tradition. Whatever the origin of the doctrines in question, the first two assumptions are of universal validity for all schools of Indian thought, with the exception of atheistic and materialist Cārvākas, and the Sāṃkhya makes no effort to establish their validity. The third assumption is of much less importance from the philosophical view, for unlike the first two it has no real effect on the substance of the Sāṃkhya philosophy, but for the adherents of the system it had the great advantage of making the school rank as orthodox, and so on a higher plane not merely than the Buddhists or Jains, but even than the sectarian worshippers of Viṣṇu and Śiva.