ヴイシェーシカ哲學に於ける句義說の立場

Abstract

The Padārtha (category) doctrine occupies the main part of the Vaicesika philosophy. In this article the present writer has tried to clarify the basic view-point of the doctrine of the Padārtha in comparison with that of Prameya(object) of the Nyāya school. The Vaicesika accepts only such Padarthas as are found to be indispensable for the explanation of all the thinkable objects. These Padārthas are classified into Substance (dravya), Quality (guna), Action (karma), Generality (sāmānya), Particularity (vicesa), and Inherence (samavāya). In the world composed of these six Padārthas, substances are inherent causes and their effects are the states caused by the inhering of qualities, actions, generalities and particularities in these substances. This causality of the inherence, seeing that it is expressed by the words "ihedam" (this is in that) and action abided in substance is defined as having no activity in itself, is static and spatial. According to the Padārtha doctrine, Ātman the perceiver of the Padarthas, as one of the nine substances, is treated like the other material substances, and besides the perception (buddhi) itself belongs to the completely objective guna category. In view of these characteristics of the Padārthas, one has to recognize that the Padārtha doctrine is referred to from a standpoint purely objective. This is the reason why the Nyāya-bhasya asserts that the Padārthas have nothing to do with the problem of transmigration (samsāra) and salvation (moksa), while Prameya (objects) are related to that very problem and far from being objects in general. So long as the Padārtha doctrine continues to adher to such a purely objective standpoint from which every thing is viewed in its static and spatial aspect, it cannot explain fully things in motion and beings alive. But this doctrine aims at the attainment of salvation by means of the true knowledge of the Padārthas. This knowledge, in so far as it is obtainable through profound meditation over the categories, is not objective but direct and practical knowledge, by means of which the causality of the inherence, originally apprehended in its static and spatial state, can be grasped dynamic. Accordingly to meet with its own defect, the Padārtha doctrine can surely be said to have its final purpose in salvation.