Classical Sāṁkhya on the Relationship between a Word and Its Meaning

Journal of Indian Philosophy 44 (2):303-323 (2016)
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the classical Sāṁkhya view on the relationship between a word and its meaning. The study embraces all the extant texts of classical Sāṁkhya, but it is based mainly on the Yuktidīpikā, since this commentary contains most of the fragments which are directly related to the topic of our research. The textual analysis has led me to the following conclusion. It is possible to reconstruct two different and conflicting views on the relationship between a word and its meaning from the classical Sāṁkhya texts. The first view, the source of which is the Yuktidīpikā, is that all words are conventional in their origin. It resembles the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika theory of the primary linguistic convention and the conventional origin of all words. The second view, which is the implication of the Sāṁkhya idea of the authorless Vedas we can reconstruct on the basis of the majority of the classical Sāṁkhya commentaries, is that the relationship between a word and its meaning is natural. This view is probably influenced by Mīmāṁsā. Both of these views are hardly compatible with the Sāṁkhya teaching. It seems like classical Sāṁkhya, not having created its own detailed theory, oscillated between different conceptions.

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References found in this work

Indian Theories of Meaning.K. Kunjanni Raja - 1968 - Philosophy East and West 18 (1):104-105.
History of Indian philosophy.Erich Frauwallner - 1973 - New York,: Humanities Press. Edited by V. M. Bedekar.
Origin and development of the Sāṃkhya system of thought.Pulinbihari Chakravarti - 1951 - New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp. : exclusively distributed by Munshinam Manoharlal Publishers.

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