The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.18

c10.18

*The Buddhists: their Analysis and Vindication of Inference.*—The Buddhists, however, take their stand on the principle of the Uniformity of Nature (प्रतिबन्ध, स्वभावप्रतिबन्ध, Nyáya-Vindu). This uniformity, for scientific purposes, has to be divided into two different relations : (1) the uniformity of succession in the relation of cause and effect, *e.g.* of smoke to fire (कार्य्य-कारणभाव, तदुत्पत्ति, Nyáya-Vindu); (2) the uniformity of co-existence (in the form of co-inherence in the same substrate) in the relation of genus and species, *e.g.* the relation of invariable concomitance expressed in the proposition "all *Sinsapás* are trees," which is not a relation of causality, but of co-existence or co-inherence in the same substrate (*i.e.* the co-inherence of the generic qualities of a tree with the specific characters of a Sisu-tree in this particular individual before me, a Sisu-tree), a relation which may be termed essential identity (तादात्म्य, स्वभाव—Nyáya-Vindu). To these two the Buddhists add a third ground of inference, non-perception of the perceptible (अनुपलब्धि, दृश्यानुपलब्धि), which is employed in inferring the absence (प्रतिषेध) of a thing from the non-perception of the thing or of something else. In all cases of inference based on the Uniformity of Nature, the relation is that of inseparableness or non-disjunction between the mark and the character inferred. The question is: how is this inseparableness (अविनाभाव) ascertained, and what is the warrant of our belief in it in these cases?