The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.10

c10.10

*The Doctrine of Inference.*—Anumána (Inference) is the process of ascertaining, not by perception or direct observation, but through the instrumentality or medium of a mark, that a thing possesses a certain character. Inference is therefore based on the establishment of an invariable concomitance (Vyápti, व्याप्ति) between the mark and the character inferred. The Hindu Inference (Anumána) is therefore neither merely formal nor merely material, but a combined Formal- Material Deductive-Inductive process. It is neither the Aristotelian Syllogism (Formal-Deductive process), nor Mill's Induction (Material-Inductive process), but the real Inference which must combine formal validity with material truth, inductive generalisation with deductive particularisation.