School

Navya-Nyāya

Overview

The Navya-Nyāya (sanskrit: नव्य-न्याय) or Neo-Logical darśana (view, system, or school) of Indian logic and Indian philosophy was founded in the 13th century CE by the philosopher Gangeśa Upādhyāya of Mithila and continued by Raghunatha Śiromaṇi of Nabadwipa in Bengal. It was a development of the classical Nyāya darśana. Other influences on Navya-Nyāya were the work of earlier philosophers Vācaspati Miśra (900–980 CE) and Udayana (late 10th century). It remained active in India through to the 18th century.

Gangeśa's book Tattvacintāmaṇi ("Thought-Jewel of Reality") was written partly in response to Śrīharśa's Khandanakhandakhādya, a defence of Advaita Vedānta, which had offered a set of thorough criticisms of Nyāya theories of thought and language. In his book, Gangeśa both addressed some of those criticisms and – more important – critically examined the Nyāya darśana itself. He held that, while Śrīharśa had failed to successfully challenge the Nyāya realist ontology, his and Gangeśa's own criticisms brought out a need to improve and refine the logical and linguistic tools of Nyāya thought, to make them more rigorous and precise.

Tattvacintāmani dealt with all the important aspects of Indian philosophy, logic and especially epistemology, which Gangeśa examined rigorously, developing and improving the Nyāya scheme, and offering examples. The results, especially his analysis of cognition, were taken up and used by other darśanas.

Navya-Nyāya developed a sophisticated language and conceptual scheme that allowed it to raise, analyze, and solve problems in logic and epistemology. It involves naming each object to be analyzed, identifying a distinguishing characteristic for the named object, and verifying the appropriateness of the defining characteristic using pramanas. It systematized all the Nyāya concepts into four main categories which are (sense-) perception (pratyakşa), inference (anumāna), comparison or similarity (upamāna), and testimony (sound or word; śabda). Great stalwarts like Basudev Sarvabhauma, Raghunath Shiromani, Jagadish Tarkalankar, Gadadhar Bhattacharya and Mathuranatha Tarkavagisha have contributed further in the development of the subject. Prof John Vattanky has contributed significantly to the modern understanding of Navya-Nyāya.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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1. Hence, in the conclusion of a syllogism we restrict a predicate to a certain object, after having thought it in the major in its whole extent under a certain condition. This complete quantity of the extent in relation to such a condition is called universality (universalitas). To this corresponds totality (universitas) of conditions in the synthesis of intuitions. The transcendental conception of reason is therefore…

   Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason

   States what Navya-Nyāya is.

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2. In this stage it is a resultant from previous separate association and apperception processes. Then follows in the second stage of expression in speech, an analysis of that total idea into its parts, in which these parts are always put into close relations with each other. Such relations are called by grammarians subject and predicate, noun and adjective, verb and adverb, &c. The grammatical meaning of these…

   Wilhelm Max Wundt, An Introduction to Psychology Translated from the Second German Edition

   States what Navya-Nyāya is.

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3. The comprehension of these we call knowledge; for which reason science is the binary number. But opinion is the ternary; for that rationally follows from comprehension. The objects of opinion are many things, and the ternary number denotes a multitude, as "Thrice happy Grecians"; for which reason Pythagoras admits the ternary. This sect of philosophers is called the Italic, by reason Pythagoras started his school in…

   Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3

   States what Navya-Nyāya is.

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Philosophers who discussed Navya-Nyāya

• Udayana
• Bimal Krishna Matilal
• Gaṅgeśa
• Jonardon Ganeri
• Raghunatha Shiromani
• Prashastapada
• Madhusūdana Sarasvatī

Related ideas

• Cognition
• Udayana
• Indian logic
• Ontology
• Bimal Krishna Matilal
• Advaita Vedanta
• Indian philosophy
• Vāchaspati Misra
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• Logic
• Bengal
• Nyaya
• Common Era
• Epistemology
• Gaṅgeśa
• Raghunatha Shiromani
• Tattvachintamani

Place in the tradition

Part of Jain philosophy.

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