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An in-depth analysis of the nyaya school's perspective on the nature of verbal knowledge (sabda). It delves into the nyaya epistemology, which accepts four means of valid knowledge (pramanas): pratyaksa (perception), anumana (inference), upamana (comparison and analogy), and sabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). The nyaya view on the instrumental cause, operation, and auxiliary cause of verbal knowledge, as well as the distinction between the traditional and modern nyaya perspectives on the denotative function of language. It highlights the nyaya emphasis on the reliability of the source and the role of recollection in the process of verbal knowledge acquisition. A comprehensive understanding of the nyaya philosophy of language and its evolution from the pracheen nyaya (old nyaya) to the navya-nyaya (new nyaya) school.
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According to the Naiyayikas, Śabda (word) is one of the four means of valid knowledge. Śabda (verbal knowledge) means relying on the word, the testimony of past or present reliable experts. One must rely on experts, such as one's parents, family, friends, teachers, ancestors, and kindred members of society, to rapidly acquire and share knowledge and thereby enrich each other's lives. This means of gaining proper knowledge is either spoken or written, but through Śabda (words). The reliability of the source is important, and legitimate knowledge can only come from the Śabda of reliable sources.
Vyatsayana, the commentator on the Nyaya Sutra, explained who a reliable person is as "one who knows the truth as it is" (yathartha), and whose sentence contains cognition and thus cannot convey falsity. The Naiyayikas believe that the actual instrumental cause of verbal knowledge is not the words that are actually being known, but the knowledge itself of words. This is to include cases where a person who keeps silence writes down words, or shows a particular gesture with their fingers to produce knowledge of a number, for example. In such cases, there could be verbal knowledge from the knowledge of words symbolized by the script or the gesture.
According to the Karikavali, the instrumental cause of verbal knowledge is the cognition itself of words. Its operation is the knowledge (i.e., recollection) of the meanings of words, and the knowledge of the denotative function is the auxiliary cause.
The process of verbal knowledge, as described in the first Karika on Śabda (Karika 81), is as follows:
a) Instrumental cause of verbal knowledge: Perception/cognition of words (padajhanam tviti) by the sense of hearing or the knowledge of words which arise from seeing the script.
b) Operation of the Instrumental cause: Knowledge (i.e., recollection) of the meanings of words (padarthadhiriti). - The recollection of the meanings of words is produced by the knowledge of words. - The auxiliary cause, in order to produce the operation, is the knowledge of the denotative function, which is the relation of the word and its meaning. - Without the knowledge of the denotative function, the recollection of the meanings of words would not be
possible, as one could also have the recollection of ether when hearing words like "jar" that inhere in ether.
The Naiyayikas believe that the denotative function is the relation of the meaning of a word with that word, and that it is in the form of the will of God, i.e., from this word, this meaning is to be understood. Recent terms (given by parents, for example) have denotative functions, but terms coined by moderns (like "nadi" and "vrddhi") have no denotative functions, according to the traditional school.
The modern Naiyayikas, however, hold that the will of God is not the denotative function but merely the will, and thus, they say that terms coined by modern Naiyayikas indeed have denotative functions.
The result of the whole process is verbal knowledge, which means the knowledge of the meaning of a sentence, i.e., the knowledge of the relation of the meanings of words.
The Pracheen Nyaya (old Nyaya, concerned with concepts) had a recorded history of dialogues, but this created ambiguity because the language used was neutral and fell prey to misunderstandings due to misinterpretations. The Navyanyaya (modern Nyaya) discovered this and emphasized the need for a non-ambiguous, clear language. Thus, the period of Navyanyaya focused on the methods and instruments of knowing. Any language of human beings can be used to transmit knowledge, and Navyanyaya developed language for precise points. There was a shift from "prameyapradan" (providing the object of knowledge) to "pramanapradan" (providing the means of knowledge) from Pracheen-Nyaya to Navyanyaya.