A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c35.21

v2.c35.21

The Chárvákas hold that the principle of causality, which the Buddhists assume to be a ground of an induction (व्याप्ति) is itself an induction (a case of Vyápti), which amounts to reasoning in a circle (चक्रक); that every inference is based on an unconditional invariable concomitance which itself must be inferred, as universal propositions cannot be established by our limited perceptions, and thus there is a regressus ad infinitum (अनादि परम्परा); and that the nexus between cause and effect, or between the sign and the thing signified (*e.g.*, smoke and fire) is only a mental step or subjective association based on former perception, a mental step which by accident is found justified by the result in a number of cases.