The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.3

c10.3

*Criterion or Test of Truth, after the Buddhists.*—The ultimate criterion of Truth is found, not in mere cognitive presentation, but in the correspondence between the cognitive and the practical activity of the Self, which together are supposed to form the circuit of consciousness. That knowledge is valid which prompts an activity ending in fruition. (*Cf.* the distinction between सम्वादिज्ञान and विसम्वादिज्ञान। Also compare प्रमाणतोऽर्थप्रतिपत्तौ प्रवृत्तिसामर्थ्यात् अर्थवत् प्रमाणम्—Vátsyáyana.) Truth, the Buddhists contend, is *not* self-evidence, *not* the agreement between ideas, *nor* the agreement of the idea with the reality beyond, if any, for this cannot be attained direct, but the harmony of experience (संवाद), which is implied when the volitional reaction, that is prompted by a cognition and that completes the circuit of consciousness, meets with fruition, *i.e.* realises its immediate end (with this compare S闇harsha, Khandana Khanda Kh闇ya, on the relation of प्रमा to लोकव्यवहार). This is the material aspect of Truth. The formal aspect is given in a principle which governs all presentations in consciousness, and which combines the three moments of Identity, non-Contradiction, and Excluded Middle in every individual cognitive operation [तद्युक्तं तत् परिच्छिनत्ति (identity) अन्यद् व्यवच्छिनत्ति (non-contradiction) तृतीयप्रकाराभावं च सूचयति (excluded middle) इति एकप्रमाणव्यापार:—Jayanta, Ny闇yamañjar\u00ED, प्रमाणद्वैविध्यखण्डनम् ].