KNOWLEDGE AND DOUBT: SOME CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS FROM AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE- J. L. SHAW

Abstract

One of the aims of this paper is to discuss the Nyāya concept of knowledge, although there is no separate word for the Western concept of knowledge. But, there are certain conditions which will justify and guarantee the truth of a cognition, and thereby the cognizer will be able to discriminate between true and false cognitions. Since justification is a property of true cognition, not a property of cognition or belief in isolation, this concept will throw light on contemporary discussions of knowledge as Justified True Belief (the JTB thesis), and thereby solve the age-old problems of knowledge, including the Gettier and post-Gettier counter-examples.

In order to achieve the above goals, this paper deals with the Nyāya concept of cognition, including the distinction between qualificative and non-qualificative cognition, which has affinity with Russell’s distinction between 'knowledge by acquaintance' and 'knowledge by description', although the Nyāya avoids both scepticism and solipsism.

I shall also mention the Nyāya concept of relation as well as the Nyāya concept of causation, as causation is used to explain all types of knowledge, namely perceptual, inferential, analogical and verbal. Moreover, causation is used to specify the causal conditions for cognitions, the causal conditions for false cognitions, the causal conditions for true cognitions, and the causal conditions which will guarantee or justify the truth of a cognition.

In this context, I shall also demonstrate how to explain a false cognition or belief without postulating the existence of the non-existent, and thereby falsify Russell’s claim that no one has succeeded in explaining a false belief “without postulating the existence of the non-existent.”

I shall also mention the Nyāya conception of doubt, as it rests on certainty. This is how the universal scepticism can be avoided. Some of the technical terms of the Nyāya philosophers will also be discussed in this paper for the perspicuous presentation of the Nyāya standpoint