The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.17

c10.17

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* (अनादिपरम्परा), 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.