The verse and its meaning · Tattva · Tattva — Tarka-sangraha — Logic in One Sitting

For Yourself, For Another

Tarka Sangraha, Anumana 6

अनुमानं द्विविधं - स्वार्थं परार्थं च ॥ तत्र स्वार्थं स्वानुमितिहेतुः, तथाहि, स्वयमेव भूयोदर्शनेन यत्र यत्र धूमस्तत्र तत्राग्निरिति महानसादौ व्याप्ति गृहीत्वा पर्वतसमीपं गतः, तद्गते चाग्नौ सन्दिहानः पर्वते धूमं पश्यन् व्याप्तिं स्मरति यत्र यत्र धूमस्तत्र तत्राग्निरिति । तदनन्तरं वह्निव्याप्यधूमवानयं पर्वत इति ज्ञानमुत्पद्यते, अयमेव लिङ्गपरामर्शः इत्युच्यते । तस्माद् पर्वतो वह्निमानिति ज्ञानमनुमितिः उत्पद्यते । तदेतत् स्वार्थानुमानम् ॥ यत्तु स्वयं धूमादग्निमनुमाय परंप्रति बोधयितुं पञ्चावयववाक्यं प्रयुज्यते तत् परार्थानुमानम् । यथा पर्वतो वह्निमान्, धूमवत्वात्, यो यो धूमवान् स वह्निमान् यथा महानसः, तथा चायं, तस्मात्तथेति । अनेन प्रतिपादितात् लिङ्गात् परोऽप्यग्निं प्रतिपद्यते ॥

Meaning · English

Inference is twofold: for oneself and for another. For oneself: having often seen in kitchens that smoke comes with fire, someone nears a hill, unsure of fire, sees smoke and recalls the rule, knows 'this hill has smoke that fire goes with' — reviewing the sign — and from that, 'the hill has fire'. For another: one who has inferred states five parts — the hill has fire; because of smoke; what has smoke has fire, like a kitchen; so does this; therefore so. The listener then grasps fire.

The question is whether reasoning works the same way when you figure something out alone and when you convince someone else. For the Nyaya, inference (anumana) comes in two kinds. Inference for oneself runs in steps. First, from seeing smoke and fire together many times, as in a kitchen, you learn vyapti, the rule that smoke never occurs without fire. Later, unsure whether a hill has fire, you see smoke there and recall the rule. The two fuse into one thought: this hill has the kind of smoke that fire always goes with. That fused thought is called paramarsha, reviewing the sign, and it yields the conclusion: the hill has fire. In his own Dipika, Annambhatta adds that repeated sightings alone are not enough. You must also know of no exception and have your doubts cleared, for instance by seeing that smoke without fire would break the bond of cause and effect. Inference for another lays your finished reasoning out in five spoken parts, so the listener walks the same steps and reaches the fire.

1. The next time today you conclude something you did not directly see, such as someone being home because their light is on, pause for ten seconds and name the sign and the rule you relied on. 2. Ask yourself whether you have ever seen that rule fail. If you have, hold the conclusion more loosely. 3. Before you try to persuade anyone this week, spend five minutes writing out five lines: your claim, your reason, the general rule with one familiar example, how the case fits, and the conclusion.

The kitchen step meets what modern philosophy calls the problem of induction. Hume argued that no number of observed cases logically guarantees the next one. Annambhatta's commentary faces a version of this when it notes that many earthy things can be scratched by iron, yet diamond cannot. The Nyaya answer is that the absence of any known exception, together with reasoning about cause, is enough to rely on. That is close to how working science treats a well-tested law: trusted, causally explained, and still open to revision if a counter-example turns up. Whether induction can ever be fully justified remains an open question. The five-part argument resembles Aristotle's syllogism, but it adds a concrete example. Modern formal logic separates an argument's validity from the truth of its premises. Nyaya instead describes how knowing actually happens in a mind. Cognitive scientists also distinguish private reasoning from public argument, much as this teaching does.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Rule Behind Inference · Tarka Sangraha, Anumana 4
• Next: Five Steps of Proof · Tarka Sangraha, Anumana 9
• All of Tattva · Ask Krishna about it

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