Padārtha is a Sanskrit word for "categories" in

Vaisheshika Vaisheshika or Vaiśeṣika ( sa, वैशेषिक) is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy (Vedic systems) from ancient India. In its early stages, the Vaiśeṣika was an independent philosophy with its own metaphysics, epistemolog ...

and

Nyaya (Sanskrit: न्याय, ''nyā-yá''), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment",Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Veda ...

.Padārtha
Jonardon Ganeri (2014), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Definition

The term “Padārtha” derived from two “Pada” or word and “Artha” or the meaning or referent. Therefore etymologically the term Padārtha means “the meaning or referent of words”.

Philosophical significance

Almost all the philosophical systems of India accept liberation as the ultimate goal of life; it is the summum bonum. For attaining liberation different philosophies prescribe different means. According to Aksapada Gautama, liberation can be attained by the true knowledge of the categories or padārthas. According to the Vaisheshika school, all things which exist, which can be cognised, and which can be named are padārthas (literal meaning: the meaning of a word), the objects of experience.

Types

From Vaisheshika view points

According to

school of philosophy Padārtha or all objects of experience can be primarily divided as "Bhāva" and "Abhāva". The bhāva padārthas are six types. These are: #Dravya (substance), #Guṇa (quality), #Karma (activity), #Sāmānya (generality), #Viśeṣa (particularity) #Samavāya (inherence). Later Vaiśeṣikas like, Śrīdhara and Udayana and Śivāditya added one more category abhava which means non-existence.

From Nyaya view points

The Nyāya metaphysics recognizes sixteen padarthas or categories and includes all six (or seven) categories of the Vaiśeṣika in the second one of them, called prameya. These are: #Pramāṇa (valid means of knowledge), #Prameya (objects of valid knowledge), #Saṃśaya (doubt), #Prayojana (aim), #Dṛṣṭānta (example), #Siddhānta (conclusion), #Avayava (members of syllogism), #Tarka (hypothetical reasoning), #Nirṇaya (settlement), #Vāda (discussion), #Jalpa (wrangling), #Vitaṇḍā (cavilling), #Hetvābhāsa (fallacy), #Chala (quibbling), #Jāti (sophisticated refutation) #Nigrahasthāna (point of defeat)

From western philosophical view points

The Vaiśeṣika categories or Padārthas are separate from the categories of Aristotle, Kant and Hegel. According to Aristotle, categories are logical classification of predicates; Kant states that categories are only patterns of the understanding and Hegel’s categories are dynamic stages in the development of thought, but the Vaiśeṣika categories are metaphysical classification of all knowable objects. Aristotle accepts ten categories: 1. Substance, 2. Quality, 3. Quantity, 4. Relation, 5 Place, 6. Time, 7. Posture, 8. Property, 9. Activity, and 10. Passivity. The Vaiśeṣikas instead place the concepts of time and place under substance; relation under quality; inherence, quantity and property under quality. Passivity is considered the opposite of activity. Gautama enumerates sixteen Padārthas.

References

External links

Category in the Encyclopædia Britannica

Padārtha in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Padartha Hindu philosophical concepts Philosophical categories