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108-397: The text provides foundational doctrines of one of the influential schools of Hindu philosophy, such as "nothing can come out of nothing, and nothing can altogether vanish out of existence" in its doctrine of Sat-Karya-Siddhanta , a debate on the two theories for the origin of the world - the creationists ( Abhava Utpatti ) and the evolutionists ( Vivarta , changing from one state to another),

216-411: A forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry. Spinoza's philosophy attracted believers such as Albert Einstein and much intellectual attention. Leibniz was the last major figure of seventeenth-century rationalism who contributed heavily to other fields such as metaphysics , epistemology , logic , mathematics , physics , jurisprudence , and the philosophy of religion ; he

324-471: A high confidence in reason that empirical proof and physical evidence were regarded as unnecessary to ascertain certain truths – in other words, "there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience". Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position "that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge" to

432-416: A purely deductive process, will result in clear truths about reality. Descartes therefore argued, as a result of his method, that reason alone determined knowledge, and that this could be done independently of the senses. For instance, his famous dictum, cogito ergo sum or "I think, therefore I am", is a conclusion reached a priori i.e., prior to any kind of experience on the matter. The simple meaning

540-650: A rationalist can choose to adopt the claim of Indispensability of Reason and or the claim of Superiority of Reason, although one can be a rationalist without adopting either thesis. The indispensability of reason thesis : "The knowledge we gain in subject area, S , by intuition and deduction, as well as the ideas and instances of knowledge in S that are innate to us, could not have been gained by us through sense experience." In short, this thesis claims that experience cannot provide what we gain from reason. The superiority of reason thesis : '"The knowledge we gain in subject area S by intuition and deduction or have innately

648-469: A solution to this paradox . By claiming that knowledge is already with us, either consciously or unconsciously , a rationalist claims we don't really learn things in the traditional usage of the word, but rather that we simply use words we know. "We have some of the concepts we employ in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature." Similar to the Innate Knowledge thesis,

756-408: A source of certain knowledge – thus allowing for the possibility of a deceiver who might cause the rationalist to intuit a false proposition in the same way a third party could cause the rationalist to have perceptions of nonexistent objects . "We have knowledge of some truths in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature." The Innate Knowledge thesis is similar to

864-435: A state of tension among its constituent strands or gunas – sattva , rajas and tamas . In a state of equilibrium of three gunas, when the three together are one, "unmanifest" Prakṛti which is unknowable. A guṇa is an entity that can change, either increase or decrease, therefore, pure consciousness is called nirguna or without any modification. The evolution obeys causality relationships, with primal Nature itself being

972-409: A theorem in geometry? We inquire into the matter. Yet, knowledge by inquiry seems impossible. In other words, "If we already have the knowledge, there is no place for inquiry. If we lack the knowledge, we don't know what we are seeking and cannot recognize it when we find it. Either way we cannot gain knowledge of the theorem by inquiry. Yet, we do know some theorems." The Innate Knowledge thesis offers

1080-408: A thing is, what truth is, and what thought is, seems to derive simply from my own nature. But my hearing a noise, as I do now, or seeing the sun, or feeling the fire, comes from things which are located outside me, or so I have hitherto judged. Lastly, sirens , hippogriffs and the like are my own invention." Adventitious ideas are those concepts that we gain through sense experiences, ideas such as

1188-519: Is a priori knowledge or experiential belief characterized by its immediacy; a form of rational insight. We simply "see" something in such a way as to give us a warranted belief. Beyond that, the nature of intuition is hotly debated. In the same way, generally speaking, deduction is the process of reasoning from one or more general premises to reach a logically certain conclusion. Using valid arguments , we can deduce from intuited premises. For example, when we combine both concepts, we can intuit that

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1296-419: Is the philosophy of India!" Gopinath Kaviraj Samkhya or Sankhya ( / ˈ s ɑː ŋ k j ə / ; Sanskrit : सांख्य , romanized :  sāṃkhya ) is a dualistic orthodox school of Hindu philosophy . It views reality as composed of two independent principles, Puruṣa (' consciousness ' or spirit) and Prakṛti (nature or matter, including the human mind and emotions). Puruṣa

1404-479: Is a Sanskrit word that, depending on the context, means 'to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational'. In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, Samkhya refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination. The word samkhya means 'empirical' or 'relating to numbers'. Although

1512-445: Is also considered to be one of the last "universal geniuses". He did not develop his system, however, independently of these advances. Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism and denied the existence of a material world. In Leibniz's view there are infinitely many simple substances, which he called " monads " (which he derived directly from Proclus ). Leibniz developed his theory of monads in response to both Descartes and Spinoza , because

1620-426: Is complicated and likely experienced a non-linear development. Samkhya is not necessarily non-Vedic nor pre-Vedic nor a 'reaction to Brahmanic hegemony', states Burley. It is most plausibly in its origins a lineage that grew and evolved from a combination of ascetic traditions and Vedic guru (teacher) and disciples. Burley suggests the link between Samkhya and Yoga as likely the root of this evolutionary origin during

1728-559: Is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment and an empiricist ), argue that the Innate Knowledge thesis and the Innate Concept thesis are the same. Other philosophers, such as Peter Carruthers , argue that the two theses are distinct from one another. As with the other theses covered under the umbrella of rationalism, the more types and greater number of concepts a philosopher claims to be innate,

1836-512: Is crucial to Patanjali 's yoga system. The strands of Samkhya thought can be traced back to the Vedic speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the Mahabharata and Yogavasishta . Larson (1969) discerns four basic periods in the development of Samkhya: Larson (1987) discerns three phases of development of the term samkhya , relating to three different meanings: In

1944-412: Is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive ". In a major philosophical debate during the Enlightenment , rationalism (sometimes here equated with innatism ) was opposed to empiricism . On the one hand, rationalists like René Descartes emphasized that knowledge is primarily innate and the intellect, the inner faculty of

2052-520: Is disturbed, and Prakriti becomes manifest, evolving twenty-three tattvas , namely intellect ( buddhi , mahat ), ego ( ahamkara ), mind ( manas ); the five sensory capacities known as ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose; the five action capacities known as hasta, pada, bak, anus, and upastha; and the five "subtle elements" or "modes of sensory content" ( tanmatras ), from which the five "gross elements" or "forms of perceptual objects" (earth, water, fire, air and space) emerge, in turn giving rise to

2160-443: Is dominant at specific times of day. The interplay of these guṇa defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life. The Samkhya theory of guṇa was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies. Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics. Thought processes and mental events are conscious only to

2268-551: Is known as the mind–body problem , since the two substances in the Cartesian system are independent of each other and irreducible. The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is a systematic, logical, rational philosophy developed in seventeenth-century Europe . Spinoza's philosophy is a system of ideas constructed upon basic building blocks with an internal consistency with which he tried to answer life's major questions and in which he proposed that "God exists only philosophically." He

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2376-469: Is neither produced nor does it produce. No appellations can qualify Purusha , nor can it be substantialized or objectified. It "cannot be reduced, can't be 'settled'". Any designation of Purusha comes from Prakriti , and is a limitation. Unlike Advaita Vedanta , and like Purva-Mīmāṃsā , Samkhya believes in plurality of the Puruṣas . Prakṛti is the first cause of the world of our experiences. Since it

2484-413: Is often mistranslated as 'matter' or 'nature' – in non-Sāṃkhyan usage it does mean 'essential nature' – but that distracts from the heavy Sāṃkhyan stress on prakṛti's cognitive, mental, psychological and sensorial activities. Moreover, subtle and gross matter are its most derivative byproducts, not its core. Only prakṛti acts. Puruṣa is considered as the conscious principle, a passive enjoyer ( bhokta ) and

2592-432: Is rooted in agricultural concepts of the union of the male sky-god and the female earth-goddess, the union of "the spiritual, immaterial, lordly, immobile fertilizer (represented as the Śiva-liṅgam, or phallus) and of the active, fertile, powerful but subservient material principle (Śakti or Power, often as the horrible Dark Lady, Kālī)." In contrast, The ascetic and meditative yoga practice, in contrast, aimed at overcoming

2700-418: Is said that Plato admired reason, especially in geometry , so highly that he had the phrase "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter" inscribed over the door to his academy. Aristotle 's main contribution to rationalist thinking was the use of syllogistic logic and its use in argument. Aristotle defines syllogism as "a discourse in which certain (specific) things having been supposed, something different from

2808-476: Is superior to any knowledge gained by sense experience". In other words, this thesis claims reason is superior to experience as a source for knowledge. Rationalists often adopt similar stances on other aspects of philosophy. Most rationalists reject skepticism for the areas of knowledge they claim are knowable a priori . When you claim some truths are innately known to us, one must reject skepticism in relation to those truths. Especially for rationalists who adopt

2916-482: Is that doubting one's existence, in and of itself, proves that an "I" exists to do the thinking. In other words, doubting one's own doubting is absurd. This was, for Descartes, an irrefutable principle upon which to ground all forms of other knowledge. Descartes posited a metaphysical dualism , distinguishing between the substances of the human body (" res extensa ") and the mind or soul (" res cogitans "). This crucial distinction would be left unresolved and lead to what

3024-402: Is that not only physical entities but even mind, ego and intelligence are regarded as forms of Unconsciousness, quite distinct from pure consciousness. Samkhya theorizes that Prakṛti is the source of the perceived world of becoming. It is pure potentiality that evolves itself successively into twenty four tattvas or principles. The evolution itself is possible because Prakṛti is always in

3132-416: Is the first principle ( tattva ) of the universe, it is called the pradhāna (chief principle), but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the jaḍa (unintelligent). It is composed of three essential characteristics ( triguna s). These are: Unmanifested Prakriti is infinite, inactive, and unconscious, with the three gunas in a state of equilibrium. When this equilibrium of

3240-409: Is the witness-consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, beyond perception, above any experience by mind or senses, and impossible to describe in words. Prakriti is matter or nature. It is inactive, unconscious, and is a balance of the three guṇas (qualities or innate tendencies), namely sattva , rajas , and tamas . When Prakṛti comes into contact with Purusha this balance

3348-481: Is thus independent of sensory experience. In other words, as Galen Strawson once wrote, "you can see that it is true just lying on your couch. You don't have to get up off your couch and go outside and examine the way things are in the physical world. You don't have to do any science." Between both philosophies, the issue at hand is the fundamental source of human knowledge and the proper techniques for verifying what we think we know. Whereas both philosophies are under

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3456-619: Is to say in plain English an atheist of the late edition...'). The use of the label 'rationalist' to characterize a world outlook which has no place for the supernatural is becoming less popular today; terms like ' humanist ' or ' materialist ' seem largely to have taken its place. But the old usage still survives. Rationalism is often contrasted with empiricism . Taken very broadly, these views are not mutually exclusive, since – on some definitions – a philosopher can be both rationalist and empiricist. Taken to extremes,

3564-489: Is very different than most Vedic speculation – but that is (itself) quite inconclusive. Speculations in the direction of the Samkhya can be found in the early Upanishads." According to Ruzsa in 2006, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see," stating that "Sāṅkhya likely grew out of speculations rooted in cosmic dualism and introspective meditational practice." The dualism

3672-603: The Prakṛti is the enjoyed ( bhogya ). Samkhya believes that the puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unconscious world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism. Puruṣa is the witness-consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". Puruṣa

3780-569: The Puruṣa that has attained liberation is to be distinguished from a Puruṣa that is still bound on account of the liberated Puruṣa being free from its subtle body (synonymous with buddhi), in which is located the mental dispositions that individuates it and causes it to experience bondage. Puruṣa , the eternal pure consciousness, due to ignorance, identifies itself with products of Prakṛti such as intellect (buddhi) and ego (ahamkara). This results in endless transmigration and suffering. However, once

3888-550: The Puruṣa , but that liberation is like bondage, wrongly ascribed to the Puruṣa and should be ascribed to Prakriti alone. Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices. Moksha is described by Samkhya scholars as a state of liberation, where sattva guṇa predominates. Samkhya considered Pratyakṣa or Dṛṣṭam (direct sense perception), Anumāna (inference), and Śabda or Āptavacana (verbal testimony of

3996-428: The Puruṣa : By seven modes nature binds herself by herself: by one, she releases (herself), for the soul's wish (Samkhya karika Verse 63) · Vacaspati gave a metaphorical example to elaborate the position that the Puruṣa is only mistakenly ascribed bondage: although the king is ascribed victory or defeat, it is actually the soldiers that experience it. It is then not merely that bondage is only mistakenly ascribed to

4104-516: The guṇas is disturbed then unmanifest Prakṛti , along with the omnipresent witness-consciousness, Purusha , gives rise to the manifest world of experience. Prakriti becomes manifest as twenty-three tattvas : intellect ( buddhi , mahat), ego ( ahamkara ) mind ( manas ); the five sensory capacities; the five action capacities; and the five "subtle elements" or "modes of sensory content" ( tanmatras : form ( rūpa ), sound ( shabda ), smell ( gandha ), taste ( rasa ), touch ( sparsha )), from which

4212-559: The Innate Concept thesis suggests that some concepts are simply part of our rational nature. These concepts are a priori in nature and sense experience is irrelevant to determining the nature of these concepts (though, sense experience can help bring the concepts to our conscious mind ). In his book Meditations on First Philosophy , René Descartes postulates three classifications for our ideas when he says, "Among my ideas, some appear to be innate, some to be adventitious, and others to have been invented by me. My understanding of what

4320-481: The Intuition/Deduction thesis in the regard that both theses claim knowledge is gained a priori . The two theses go their separate ways when describing how that knowledge is gained. As the name, and the rationale, suggests, the Innate Knowledge thesis claims knowledge is simply part of our rational nature. Experiences can trigger a process that allows this knowledge to come into our consciousness, but

4428-449: The Intuition/Deduction thesis, the idea of epistemic foundationalism tends to crop up. This is the view that we know some truths without basing our belief in them on any others and that we then use this foundational knowledge to know more truths. "Some propositions in a particular subject area, S, are knowable by us by intuition alone; still others are knowable by being deduced from intuited propositions." Generally speaking, intuition

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4536-449: The Intuition/Deduction thesis, the more certain they are of their warranted beliefs, and the more strictly they adhere to the infallibility of intuition, the more controversial their truths or claims and the more radical their rationalism. In addition to different subjects, rationalists sometimes vary the strength of their claims by adjusting their understanding of the warrant. Some rationalists understand warranted beliefs to be beyond even

4644-430: The Intuition/Deduction thesis, we are able to generate different arguments. Most rationalists agree mathematics is knowable by applying the intuition and deduction. Some go further to include ethical truths into the category of things knowable by intuition and deduction. Furthermore, some rationalists also claim metaphysics is knowable in this thesis. Naturally, the more subjects the rationalists claim to be knowable by

4752-487: The Method , Meditations on First Philosophy , and Principles of Philosophy . Descartes developed a method to attain truths according to which nothing that cannot be recognised by the intellect (or reason ) can be classified as knowledge. These truths are gained "without any sensory experience," according to Descartes. Truths that are attained by reason are broken down into elements that intuition can grasp, which, through

4860-636: The Samkhya and Mīmāṃsā schools appear to have been established before the Sramana traditions in India (~500 BCE), and he finds that "Samkhya represents a relatively free development of speculation among the Brahmans, independent of the Vedic revelation." Warder writes, '[Samkhya] has indeed been suggested to be non-Brahmanical and even anti-Vedic in origin, but there is no tangible evidence for that except that it

4968-744: The Vedas, early Upanishads such as the Chandogya Upanishad , and the Bhagavad Gita . However, these early speculations and proto-Samkhya ideas had not distilled and congealed into a distinct, complete philosophy. While some earlier scholars have argued for Upanishadic origins of the Samkhya-tradition, and the Upanisads contain dualistic speculations which may have influenced proto-samkhya, other scholars have noted

5076-540: The Vedic era of India. According to Van Buitenen, various ideas on yoga and meditation developed in the interaction between various sramanas and ascetic groups. Rationalism In philosophy , rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or “the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge”, often in contrast to other possible sources of knowledge such as faith , tradition, or sensory experience . More formally, rationalism

5184-527: The Western timeline was the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas who attempted to merge Greek rationalism and Christian revelation in the thirteenth-century. Generally, the Roman Catholic Church viewed Rationalists as a threat, labeling them as those who "while admitting revelation, reject from the word of God whatever, in their private judgment, is inconsistent with human reason." Descartes was

5292-485: The agrarian theology of Śiva-Śakti/Sky-Earth and the tradition of yoga (meditation) do not appear to be rooted in the Vedas. Not surprisingly, classical Sāṅkhya is remarkably independent of orthodox Brahmanic traditions, including the Vedas. Sāṅkhya is silent about the Vedas, about their guardians (the Brahmins) and for that matter about the whole caste system, and about the Vedic gods; and it is slightly unfavorable towards

5400-515: The amplification of knowledge, they must be brought into relation with empirical data". Rationalism has become a rarer label of philosophers today; rather many different kinds of specialised rationalisms are identified. For example, Robert Brandom has appropriated the terms "rationalist expressivism" and "rationalist pragmatism" as labels for aspects of his programme in Articulating Reasons , and identified "linguistic rationalism",

5508-658: The animal sacrifices that characterized the ancient Vedic religion. But all our early sources for the history of Sāṅkhya belong to the Vedic tradition, and it is thus reasonable to suppose that we do not see in them the full development of the Sāṅkhya system, but rather occasional glimpses of its development as it gained gradual acceptance in the Brahmanic fold. Burley argues for an ontegenetic or incremental development of Shamkya, instead of being established by one historical founder. Burley states that India's religio-cultural heritage

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5616-496: The awareness of apparently a priori domains of knowledge such as mathematics, combined with the emphasis of obtaining knowledge through the use of rational faculties (commonly rejecting, for example, direct revelation ) have made rationalist themes very prevalent in the history of philosophy . Since the Enlightenment, rationalism is usually associated with the introduction of mathematical methods into philosophy as seen in

5724-678: The beginning of the first millennium CE. The defining method of Samkhya was established with the Samkhyakarika (4th c. CE). Samkhya might have been theistic or nontheistic, but with its classical systematization in the early first millennium CE, the existence of a deity became irrelevant. Samkhya is strongly related to the Yoga school of Hinduism , for which it forms the theoretical foundation, and it has influenced other schools of Indian philosophy. Sāṃkhya (सांख्य) or sāṅkhya , also transliterated as s amkhya and sankhya , respectively,

5832-681: The beginning this was Self alone, in the shape of a person (puruṣa). He looking around saw nothing but his Self ( Atman ). He first said, "This is I", therefore he became I by name. —Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1 The early, speculative phase took place in the first half of the first millennium BCE, when ascetic spirituality and monastic ( sramana and yati ) traditions came into vogue in India, and ancient scholars combined "enumerated set[s] of principles" with "a methodology of reasoning that results in spiritual knowledge ( vidya, jnana, viveka )." These early non-Samkhya speculations and proto-Samkhya ideas are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as

5940-467: The cause. The cause under consideration here is Prakṛti or more precisely Moola-Prakṛti ("Primordial Matter"). The Samkhya system is therefore an exponent of an evolutionary theory of matter beginning with primordial matter. In evolution, Prakṛti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects. Evolution is followed by dissolution. In dissolution the physical existence, all the worldly objects mingle back into Prakṛti , which now remains as

6048-428: The debate in these fields are focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth , belief , and justification . At its core, rationalism consists of three basic claims. For people to consider themselves rationalists, they must adopt at least one of these three claims: the intuition/deduction thesis, the innate knowledge thesis, or the innate concept thesis. In addition,

6156-537: The dissimilarities of Shamkhya with the Vedic tradition. As early as 1898, Richard Karl von Garbe , a German professor of philosophy and Indologist, wrote in 1898, The origin of the Sankhya system appears in the proper light only when we understand that in those regions of India which were little influenced by Brahmanism [political connotation given by the Christian missionary] the first attempt had been made to solve

6264-458: The doctrine of Parinama (transformation), among others. Samkhya Pravachana Sutra is also known as Samkhya Sutra . It describes the philosophy of the Samkhya school. The edition that survives in modern times is dated to the 14th century. The text consists of six chapters. The first three describe core Samkhya doctrines, the fourth chapter describes stories for illustration of the doctrines,

6372-405: The effect is pre-existent in the cause. There is only an apparent or illusory change in the makeup of the cause and not a material one, when it becomes effect. Since, effects cannot come from nothing, the original cause or ground of everything is seen as Prakṛti . More specifically, Samkhya system follows the prakṛti-Parināma Vāda . Parināma denotes that the effect is a real transformation of

6480-423: The empiricist view holds that all ideas come to us a posteriori , that is to say, through experience; either through the external senses or through such inner sensations as pain and gratification. The empiricist essentially believes that knowledge is based on or derived directly from experience. The rationalist believes we come to knowledge a priori  – through the use of logic – and

6588-441: The empiricist, he argued that while it is correct that experience is fundamentally necessary for human knowledge, reason is necessary for processing that experience into coherent thought. He therefore concludes that both reason and experience are necessary for human knowledge. In the same way, Kant also argued that it was wrong to regard thought as mere analysis. "In Kant's views, a priori concepts do exist, but if they are to lead to

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6696-417: The epistemological and metaphysical problems raised by Descartes led to a development of the fundamental approach of rationalism. Both Spinoza and Leibniz asserted that, in principle , all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, could be gained through the use of reason alone, though they both observed that this was not possible in practice for human beings except in specific areas such as mathematics . On

6804-541: The experiences do not provide us with the knowledge itself. The knowledge has been with us since the beginning and the experience simply brought into focus, in the same way a photographer can bring the background of a picture into focus by changing the aperture of the lens. The background was always there, just not in focus. This thesis targets a problem with the nature of inquiry originally postulated by Plato in Meno . Here, Plato asks about inquiry; how do we gain knowledge of

6912-453: The extent they receive illumination from Purusha . In Samkhya, consciousness is compared to light which illuminates the material configurations or 'shapes' assumed by the mind. So intellect, after receiving cognitive structures from the mind and illumination from pure consciousness, creates thought structures that appear to be conscious. Ahamkara, the ego or the phenomenal self, appropriates all mental experiences to itself and thus, personalizes

7020-409: The fifth reviews arguments and challenge by rival Indian philosophies particularly Buddhism on one side and Theistic philosophy on the other side, then provides its analysis and answers to those challenges. The last chapter recapitulates its thesis, summarizes its main points and makes conclusions. Major sections and thesis presented in the text include (not exhaustive): The most important commentary on

7128-452: The first of the modern rationalists and has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy.' Much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. Descartes thought that only knowledge of eternal truths – including the truths of mathematics, and the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of the sciences – could be attained by reason alone; other knowledge,

7236-490: The five "gross elements" or "forms of perceptual objects" emerge (earth (prithivi), water (jala), fire (Agni), air (Vāyu), ether (Ākāsha)). Prakriti is the source of our experience; it is not "the evolution of a series of material entities," but "the emergence of experience itself". It is description of experience and the relations between its elements, not an explanation of the origin of the universe. All Prakriti has these three guṇas in different proportions. Each guṇa

7344-465: The foundations of rationalism. In particular, the understanding that we may be aware of knowledge available only through the use of rational thought. Pythagoras was one of the first Western philosophers to stress rationalist insight. He is often revered as a great mathematician , mystic and scientist , but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem , which bears his name, and for discovering

7452-510: The human mind, can therefore directly grasp or derive logical truths ; on the other hand, empiricists like John Locke emphasized that knowledge is not primarily innate and is best gained by careful observation of the physical world outside the mind, namely through sensory experiences. Rationalists asserted that certain principles exist in logic , mathematics , ethics , and metaphysics that are so fundamentally true that denying them causes one to fall into contradiction. The rationalists had such

7560-477: The idea of innate concepts by suggesting the mind plays a role in determining the nature of concepts, to explain this, he likens the mind to a block of marble in the New Essays on Human Understanding , This is why I have taken as an illustration a block of veined marble, rather than a wholly uniform block or blank tablets, that is to say what is called tabula rasa in the language of the philosophers. For if

7668-511: The knowledge of physics, required experience of the world, aided by the scientific method . He also argued that although dreams appear as real as sense experience , these dreams cannot provide persons with knowledge. Also, since conscious sense experience can be the cause of illusions, then sense experience itself can be doubtable. As a result, Descartes deduced that a rational pursuit of truth should doubt every belief about sensory reality. He elaborated these beliefs in such works as Discourse on

7776-483: The limitations of the natural body and achieving perfect stillness of the mind. A combination of these views may have resulted in the concept of the Puruṣa , the unchanging immaterial conscious essence, contrasted with Prakṛti , the material principle that produces not only the external world and the body but also the changing and externally determined aspects of the human mind (such as the intellect, ego, internal and external perceptual organs). According to Ruzsa, Both

7884-455: The manifestation of sensory experience and cognition. Jiva ('a living being') is the state in which Puruṣa is bonded to Prakriti . Human experience is an interplay of the two, Puruṣa being conscious of the various combinations of cognitive activities. The end of the bondage of Puruṣa to Prakriti is called Moksha (Liberation) or Kaivalya (Isolation). Samkhya's epistemology accepts three of six pramanas ('proofs') as

7992-424: The material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Samkhya is called " Satkārya-vāda " ("theory of existent causes"), and holds that nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness – all evolution is simply the transformation of primal Nature from one form to another. Samkhya cosmology describes how life emerges in the universe; the relationship between Purusha and Prakṛti

8100-446: The mathematical relationship between the length of strings on lute and the pitches of the notes. Pythagoras "believed these harmonies reflected the ultimate nature of reality. He summed up the implied metaphysical rationalism in the words 'All is number'. It is probable that he had caught the rationalist's vision, later seen by Galileo (1564–1642), of a world governed throughout by mathematically formulable laws". It has been said that he

8208-673: The middle Upanishads, the Buddhacharita , the Bhagavad Gita , and the Mokshadharma -section of the Mahabharata . It was related to the early ascetic traditions and meditation, spiritual practices, and religious cosmology, and methods of reasoning that result in liberating knowledge ( vidya , jnana , viveka ) that end the cycle of duḥkha (suffering) and rebirth allowing for "a great variety of philosophical formulations". Pre- Karika systematic Samkhya existed around

8316-484: The more controversial and radical their position; "the more a concept seems removed from experience and the mental operations we can perform on experience the more plausibly it may be claimed to be innate. Since we do not experience perfect triangles but do experience pains, our concept of the former is a more promising candidate for being innate than our concept of the latter. Although rationalism in its modern form post-dates antiquity, philosophers from this time laid down

8424-532: The more extreme position that reason is "the unique path to knowledge". Given a pre-modern understanding of reason, rationalism is identical to philosophy , the Socratic life of inquiry, or the zetetic ( skeptical ) clear interpretation of authority (open to the underlying or essential cause of things as they appear to our sense of certainty). Rationalism has a philosophical history dating from antiquity . The analytical nature of much of philosophical enquiry,

8532-521: The number three is prime and that it is greater than two. We then deduce from this knowledge that there is a prime number greater than two. Thus, it can be said that intuition and deduction combined to provide us with a priori knowledge – we gained this knowledge independently of sense experience. To argue in favor of this thesis, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , a prominent German philosopher, says, The senses, although they are necessary for all our actual knowledge, are not sufficient to give us

8640-502: The objective activities of mind and intellect by assuming possession of them. But consciousness is itself independent of the thought structures it illuminates. The Supreme Good is mokṣa which consists in the permanent impossibility of the incidence of pain... in the realisation of the Self as Self pure and simple. —Samkhyakarika I.3 Samkhya school considers moksha as a natural quest of every jiva. The Samkhyakarika states, As

8748-656: The only reliable means of gaining knowledge, as does yoga . These are pratyakṣa (' perception '), anumāṇa (' inference ') and śabda ( āptavacana , meaning, 'word/testimony of reliable sources'). Sometimes described as one of the rationalist schools of Indian philosophy , it relies exclusively on reason. While Samkhya-like speculations can be found in the Rig Veda and some of the older Upanishads, some western scholars have proposed that Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins, developing in ascetic milieus. Proto-Samkhya ideas developed c. 8th/7th BC and onwards, as evidenced in

8856-521: The other hand, Leibniz admitted in his book Monadology that "we are all mere Empirics in three fourths of our actions." In politics , rationalism, since the Enlightenment , historically emphasized a "politics of reason" centered upon rationality , deontology , utilitarianism , secularism , and irreligion  – the latter aspect's antitheism was later softened by the adoption of pluralistic reasoning methods practicable regardless of religious or irreligious ideology. In this regard,

8964-439: The philosopher John Cottingham noted how rationalism, a methodology , became socially conflated with atheism , a worldview : In the past, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the term 'rationalist' was often used to refer to free thinkers of an anti-clerical and anti-religious outlook, and for a time the word acquired a distinctly pejorative force (thus in 1670 Sanderson spoke disparagingly of 'a mere rationalist, that

9072-423: The puruṣa or soul'. Samkhya makes a distinction between two "irreducible, innate and independent realities", Purusha , the witness-consciousness, and Prakṛti , "matter", the activities of mind and perception. According to Dan Lusthaus, In Sāṃkhya puruṣa signifies the observer, the 'witness'. Prakṛti includes all the cognitive, moral, psychological, emotional, sensorial and physical aspects of reality. It

9180-502: The rationalists he argued, broadly, that pure reason is flawed when it goes beyond its limits and claims to know those things that are necessarily beyond the realm of every possible experience: the existence of God , free will, and the immortality of the human soul. Kant referred to these objects as "The Thing in Itself" and goes on to argue that their status as objects beyond all possible experience by definition means we cannot know them. To

9288-549: The realization arises that Puruṣa is distinct from Prakṛti , is more than empirical ego, and that puruṣa is deepest conscious self within, the Self gains isolation ( kaivalya ) and freedom ( moksha ). Though in conventional terms the bondage is ascribed to the Puruṣa , this is ultimately a mistake. This is because the Samkhya school (Samkhya karika Verse 63) maintains that it is actually Prakriti that binds itself, and thus bondage should in reality be ascribed to Prakriti , not to

9396-453: The rejection of their visions forced him to arrive at his own solution. Monads are the fundamental unit of reality, according to Leibniz, constituting both inanimate and animate objects. These units of reality represent the universe, though they are not subject to the laws of causality or space (which he called " well-founded phenomena "). Leibniz, therefore, introduced his principle of pre-established harmony to account for apparent causality in

9504-467: The riddles of the world and of our existence merely by means of reason. For the Sankhya philosophy is, in its essence, not only atheistic but also inimical to the Veda'. Dandekar , similarly wrote in 1968, 'The origin of the Sankhya is to be traced to the pre-Vedic non-Aryan thought complex'. Heinrich Zimmer states that Samkhya has non-Aryan origins. Anthony Warder (1994; first ed. 1967) writes that

9612-446: The sages or shāstras) to be the only valid means of knowledge or pramana . Unlike some other schools, Samkhya did not consider the following three pramanas to be epistemically proper: Upamāṇa (comparison and analogy), Arthāpatti (postulation, deriving from circumstances) or Anupalabdi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof). The Samkhya system is based on Sat-kārya-vāda or the theory of causation. According to Satkāryavāda,

9720-524: The sensation of heat, because they originate from outside sources; transmitting their own likeness rather than something else and something you simply cannot will away. Ideas invented by us, such as those found in mythology , legends and fairy tales , are created by us from other ideas we possess. Lastly, innate ideas, such as our ideas of perfection , are those ideas we have as a result of mental processes that are beyond what experience can directly or indirectly provide. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz defends

9828-401: The slightest doubt; others are more conservative and understand the warrant to be belief beyond a reasonable doubt. Rationalists also have different understanding and claims involving the connection between intuition and truth. Some rationalists claim that intuition is infallible and that anything we intuit to be true is as such. More contemporary rationalists accept that intuition is not always

9936-471: The soul were like those blank tablets, truths would be in us in the same way as the figure of Hercules is in a block of marble, when the marble is completely indifferent whether it receives this or some other figure. But if there were veins in the stone which marked out the figure of Hercules rather than other figures, this stone would be more determined thereto, and Hercules would be as it were in some manner innate in it, although labour would be needed to uncover

10044-404: The term had been used in the general sense of metaphysical knowledge before, in technical usage it refers to the Samkhya school of thought that evolved into a cohesive philosophical system in early centuries CE. The Samkhya system is called so because 'it "enumerates'" twenty five Tattvas or true principles; and its chief object is to effect the final emancipation of the twenty-fifth Tattva, i.e.

10152-474: The term that has been most widely used and discussed by the early 21st century is "warrant". Loosely speaking, justification is the reason that someone (probably) holds a belief. If A makes a claim and then B casts doubt on it, A ' s next move would normally be to provide justification for the claim. The precise method one uses to provide justification is where the lines are drawn between rationalism and empiricism (among other philosophical views). Much of

10260-418: The testimony of the senses, although without the senses it would never have occurred to us to think of them… Empiricists such as David Hume have been willing to accept this thesis for describing the relationships among our own concepts. In this sense, empiricists argue that we are allowed to intuit and deduce truths from knowledge that has been obtained a posteriori . By injecting different subjects into

10368-403: The text is Vijñānabhikṣu ’s Sāṁkhyapravacanabhāṣya (16th century). Other important commentaries on this text include Anirruddha's Kāpilasāṁkhyapravacanasūtravṛtti (15th century), Mahādeva ’s Sāṁkhyapravacanasūtravṛttisāra (c. 1600) and Nāgeśa ’s Laghusāṁkhyasūtravṛtti . Samkhya "Samkhya is not one of the systems of Indian philosophy. Samkhya

10476-459: The things supposed results of necessity because these things are so." Despite this very general definition, Aristotle limits himself to categorical syllogisms which consist of three categorical propositions in his work Prior Analytics . These included categorical modal syllogisms. Although the three great Greek philosophers disagreed with one another on specific points, they all agreed that rational thought could bring to light knowledge that

10584-485: The two philosophies is not as clear-cut as is sometimes suggested; for example, Descartes and Locke have similar views about the nature of human ideas. Proponents of some varieties of rationalism argue that, starting with foundational basic principles, like the axioms of geometry , one could deductively derive the rest of all possible knowledge. Notable philosophers who held this view most clearly were Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz , whose attempts to grapple with

10692-457: The umbrella of epistemology , their argument lies in the understanding of the warrant, which is under the wider epistemic umbrella of the theory of justification . Part of epistemology , this theory attempts to understand the justification of propositions and beliefs . Epistemologists are concerned with various epistemic features of belief, which include the ideas of justification , warrant, rationality , and probability . Of these four terms,

10800-527: The unconscious milk functions for the sake of nourishment of the calf, so the Prakriti functions for the sake of moksha of the spirit. Samkhya regards ignorance ( avidyā ) as the root cause of suffering and bondage ( Samsara ). Samkhya states that the way out of this suffering is through knowledge (viveka). Mokṣa (liberation), states Samkhya school, results from knowing the difference between Prakṛti (avyakta-vyakta) and Puruṣa (jña). More specifically,

10908-456: The undifferentiated, primordial substance. This is how the cycles of evolution and dissolution follow each other. But this theory is very different from the modern theories of science in the sense that Prakṛti evolves for each Jiva separately, giving individual bodies and minds to each and after liberation these elements of Prakṛti merges into the Moola-Prakṛti . Another uniqueness of Sāmkhya

11016-441: The veins, and to clear them by polishing, and by cutting away what prevents them from appearing. It is in this way that ideas and truths are innate in us, like natural inclinations and dispositions, natural habits or potentialities, and not like activities, although these potentialities are always accompanied by some activities which correspond to them, though they are often imperceptible." Some philosophers, such as John Locke (who

11124-571: The whole of it, since the senses never give anything but instances, that is to say particular or individual truths. Now all the instances which confirm a general truth, however numerous they may be, are not sufficient to establish the universal necessity of this same truth, for it does not follow that what happened before will happen in the same way again. … From which it appears that necessary truths, such as we find in pure mathematics, and particularly in arithmetic and geometry, must have principles whose proof does not depend on instances, nor consequently on

11232-455: The works of Descartes , Leibniz , and Spinoza . This is commonly called continental rationalism , because it was predominant in the continental schools of Europe, whereas in Britain empiricism dominated. Even then, the distinction between rationalists and empiricists was drawn at a later period and would not have been recognized by the philosophers involved. Also, the distinction between

11340-673: The world. Kant is one of the central figures of modern philosophy , and set the terms by which all subsequent thinkers have had to grapple. He argued that human perception structures natural laws, and that reason is the source of morality. His thought continues to hold a major influence in contemporary thought, especially in fields such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Kant named his brand of epistemology " Transcendental Idealism ", and he first laid out these views in his famous work The Critique of Pure Reason . In it he argued that there were fundamental problems with both rationalist and empiricist dogma. To

11448-787: Was heavily influenced by Descartes, Euclid and Thomas Hobbes , as well as theologians in the Jewish philosophical tradition such as Maimonides . But his work was in many respects a departure from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. Many of Spinoza's ideas continue to vex thinkers today and many of his principles, particularly regarding the emotions , have implications for modern approaches to psychology . To this day, many important thinkers have found Spinoza's "geometrical method" difficult to comprehend: Goethe admitted that he found this concept confusing. His magnum opus , Ethics , contains unresolved obscurities and has

11556-536: Was self-evident – information that humans otherwise could not know without the use of reason. After Aristotle's death, Western rationalistic thought was generally characterized by its application to theology, such as in the works of Augustine , the Islamic philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina) , Averroes (Ibn Rushd) , and Jewish philosopher and theologian Maimonides . The Waldensians sect also incorporated rationalism into their movement. One notable event in

11664-659: Was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom. Plato held rational insight to a very high standard, as is seen in his works such as Meno and The Republic . He taught on the Theory of Forms (or the Theory of Ideas) which asserts that the highest and most fundamental kind of reality is not the material world of change known to us through sensation , but rather the abstract, non-material (but substantial ) world of forms (or ideas). For Plato, these forms were accessible only to reason and not to sense. In fact, it

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