The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c12.10.2

c12.10.2

Objections are raised to the Buddhist denial of the soul, to its assertion of the momentary character of the world, and to its belief in the annihilation of personality as final release. The special doctrine of the Vijñānavādins, that nothing exists but consciousness, is refuted as well as the nihilism of the Mādhyamikas. The Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika philosophies are severely criticized: their schemes of categories are rejected as inadequate, their belief in atoms is rejected, and their denial of a primitive material is answered. The doctrine of the eternity of the mind, space, time, the ether and the atoms of the other four elements is denied, as is the atomic size of the mind, on the ground that it must have some dimension in order to act simultaneously with more than one of the senses. The derivation of the senses from the elements is equally contested. Moreover, the doctrine of causality of the Sāṃkhya, which asserts the permanence of the cause in the product is defended against the logicians' view that the product has no existence before its production and after its destruction as such. The category of inherence, Samavāya, supported by these schools is rejected in favour of the simpler view that what it means is really to be expressed by the nature of the object in question. The whole theory of soul as really active is rejected, and with it the theory that release consists in the freeing of the soul from certain characteristics.