School
Vaiśeṣika Sūtra
Overview
Vaiśeṣika Sūtra (Sanskrit: वैशेषिक सूत्र), also called Kaṇāda Sūtra (कणाद सूत्र), is an ancient Sanskrit text at the foundation of the Vaisheshika school of Hindu philosophy. The sutra was authored by the Hindu sage Kanada, also known as Kashyapa. According to some scholars, he flourished before the advent of Buddhism because the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra makes no mention of Buddhism or Buddhist doctrines; however, the details of Kanada's life are uncertain, and the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra was likely compiled sometime between 6th and 2nd century BCE, and finalized in the currently existing version before the start of the common era.
A number of scholars have commented on it since the beginning of common era; the earliest commentary known is the Padartha Dharma Sangraha of Prashastapada. Another important secondary work on Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is Maticandra's Dasha padartha sastra which exists both in Sanskrit and its Chinese translation in 648 CE by Yuanzhuang.
The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is written in aphoristic sutras style, and presents its theories on the creation and existence of the universe using naturalistic atomism, applying logic and realism, and is one of the earliest known systematic realist ontology in human history. The text discusses motions of different kind and laws that govern it, the meaning of dharma, a theory of epistemology, the basis of Atman (self, soul), and the nature of yoga and moksha. The explicit mention of motion as the cause of all phenomena in the world and several propositions about it make it one of the earliest texts on physics.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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This ancient division of philosophy into three parts was, in the greater part of the universities of Europe, changed for another into five. In the ancient philosophy, whatever was taught concerning the nature either of the human mind or of the Deity, made a part of the system of physics. Those beings, in whatever their essence might be supposed to consist, were parts of the great system of the universe, and parts…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
States what Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is.
2. _The Philosophy of Gotama and Canade_. The philosophy of Gotama and that of Canade belong to one another.[18] The philosophy of Gotama is called Nyaya (reasoning), and that of Canade, Vaiseshica (particular). The first is a specially perfect dialectic, and the second, on the other hand, occupies itself with physics, that is, with particular or sensuous objects.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is.
They held that locomotion consisted in the translation of each atom of a body from one point to the next one; accordingly the velocity of one body in motion cannot be greater than that of another body. When, nevertheless, two bodies are observed to move during the same time through different spaces, the cause of this difference is not attributed by them to the fact that the body which has moved through a larger…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is.
Philosophers who discussed Vaiśeṣika Sūtra
Related ideas
- Ātman (Hinduism)
- Vedas
- Jainism
- Moksha
- Bhashya
- Nagarjuna
- Ontology
- Dravya
- Sanskrit
- Sutra
- Hindu philosophy
- Vaisheshika
- Kāla
- Buddhism
- Yoga
- Kaṇāda
- Atomism
- Nyaya
- Dharma
- Atom
- Epistemology
- Prashastapada
- Shankara Mishra
Place in the tradition
Part of Atomism.