Talk:Nyaya

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[edit] Inference example

"Wherever there is fire, there is smoke"

Shouldn't that read "Wherever there is smoke, there is fire"? The above wording does not rule out the possibility of there being smoke without fire, and therefore does not prove the Pratijñā. Pedantic, I know, but isn't that the point? --- Anon

Seems like we're missing something here. You could easily replace fire with 'acid' and end up proving 'there is acid on the hill' with the same logic. Besides, it violates Modus ponens. Surely the ancient Indians and the ancient Greeks didn't have different meanings for 'truth' [:)]. This article needs more solid examples. — Rohit Dasari

There is no violation of modus ponens. The example seems okay. The assertion simply says that "If fire then smoke". It does not exclude the possibility of smoke being there due to other factors. The assertion does not say "Only if fire, then smoke.. it says whenever there is fire.." And it also does not say what should be the truth value of "smoke" if there is no fire. I don't see how we could replace "fire" with "acid" and prove "there is acid on the hill". --- Sri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.164.104.166 (talk) 08:13, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Correction. I stand corrected as the set of five assertions collectively does indeed violate modus ponens. The example is of abductive reasoning, not deductive reasoning. It needs correction. -- Sri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.164.104.166 (talk) 08:19, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I put a cleanup notice on this article because the article does not conform to generally prevailing standards of editing: it looks rather like a cut&paste effort from elsewhere.

The inconsistent terminology causes confusion when discussing the article with others. In the overview "there are exactly four sources of knowledge (pramanas)", whilst in the Epistemology "four means("pramana") of obtaining correct knowledge". Also the fourth pramana is called testimony in the Overview, and word in the Epistemology.

I'd very much like to see this article developed: it would be useful to the logic pages to have a non-Greek-derived system of logic described. --- Charles Stewart

[edit] Resource

[1] has a nice overview of the system of reasoning inside Nyaya, and could be used as a basis for completing this article. --- Charles Stewart 20:11, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)