The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.16

c11.16

The essentially inferior position as a means of proof, allotted to tradition, is attested by the Sāṃkhya doctrine of causality: despite the numerous passages in the sacred scriptures which might be adduced for the doctrine that non-existence was the source of being, the Sāṃkhya asserts the doctrine that the result really exists beforehand in its cause, just as the clay serves to form a pot, or the threads form a piece of cloth. For this theory five grounds are adduced: the non-existent cannot be the subject of an activity; the product is really nothing else than the material of which it is composed; the product exists before its coming into being in the shape of its material; only a definite product can be produced from each material; and only a specific material can yield a specific result. The last four arguments, which are in effect but two, rest on the perception that in the product the original material is contained, though under change of appearance, and that definite materials give definite and distinct results; the first argument, on the other hand, rests not merely on the fact that the coming into being of any object save from a definite material is not observed, but also on the argument that if a thing does not exist there can be no possibility of its doing anything. Hence it follows that in its ultimate essence causality is reduced to change of appearance in an abiding entity, a conception of great importance for the system.