Vatsyayana c. 350 – c. 425
Vatsyayana (c. 350 – c. 425) was an Indian philosopher of the Ancient era, associated with Indian Philosophy.
Vatsyayana, also called Pakshilasvamin, was a fourth- or fifth-century Indian Nyaya philosopher, the author of the Nyaya-bhasya, the foundational commentary on the Nyaya Sutras of Akshapada Gautama. His commentary established the standard interpretation of Nyaya as a school of valid epistemic instruments and inferential reasoning, dealing systematically with perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony as the four sources of knowledge. His sustained attention to the conditions of valid argument and to the criticism of Buddhist epistemology shaped the long tradition of Indian logical and epistemological analysis until the rise of Navya-Nyaya nearly a millennium later.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Indian
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Indian Philosophy
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Vatsyayana:
“Right knowledge is the cause of right action; right action is the cause of right release.”
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Attributed to Vatsyayana:
“There are four valid means of knowledge: perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony.”
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Attributed to Vatsyayana:
“An inference is sound when its mark is invariably accompanied by what it is taken to indicate.”
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Attributed to Vatsyayana:
“Doubt is the beginning of philosophy, but doubt resolved by argument is its end.”
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Attributed to Vatsyayana:
“What we cannot establish by argument we cannot defend, and what we cannot defend we should not assert.”
Frequently asked about Vatsyayana
- When did Vatsyayana live?
- Vatsyayana was born in c. 350 and died in c. 425.
- Where was Vatsyayana from?
- Vatsyayana was an Indian philosopher of the Ancient era.
- What philosophical movements is Vatsyayana associated with?
- Vatsyayana was associated with Indian Philosophy.
- What was Vatsyayana known for?
- Vatsyayana, also called Pakshilasvamin, was a fourth- or fifth-century Indian Nyaya philosopher, the author of the Nyaya-bhasya, the foundational commentary on the Nyaya Sutras of Akshapada Gautama.
- How many quotes are attributed to Vatsyayana?
- There are 15 attributed quotations from Vatsyayana in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.