Contraposition in Indian Logic

Publisher Summary This chapter gives an inference in Indian logic that can generally be written in the following form, (x) (A (h, x) →A (s, x)). In any given inference, the place of the variable x is taken by a preferential locus that is called “paksa” and that is denoted by p. The question is then asked whether s occurs in p if h occurs in p. The Sanskrit grammarians use paksa to denote alternative, view, or hypothesis. In addition, the terms “vyakti-paksa” and “jati-paksa” are utilised for referring to the individual (vyakti) and the class (jati) to which it belongs. The compound “anvaya-vyatireka” seems to have originated among the grammarians and occurs probably for the first time in a vyartikka of Katyayana mentioned by Patanjali during the discussion of a sūtra of Panini. In this sūtra, Panini defines a nominal stem as what is meaningful but is neither a verbal root, nor a suffix or what ends in a suffix. One of the sections of the commentary deals with the problem of whether a nominal stem in itself can be meaningful.