THE CARVAKA PHILOSOPHY

AJIT SINGHENGLISH TRAINER

ORIGIN Carvaka is the that generally stands for

“Materialist”

According to one view “Carvaka was was named after a sage who propounded materialism.”

“Carvaka was even originally a common descriptive name given to a materialist, either because he preaches the doctrine of ‘eat, drink and be merry (carv-eat,chew), or because his words are pleasant and nice (caru-nice, vak-word).

THE CARVAKA EPISTEMOLOGY

The entire philosophy of the Carvaka may be said to depend logically on their epistemology or the theory of knowledge.

PROBLEMS OF THE EPISTEMOLOGY

How far can we know reality? How does knowledge originate and

develop? What are the different sources of

knowledge?

CHIEF TOPICS OF INDIAN EPITEMOLOGY

Knowledge of reality or valid cognition is called prama and the source of such knowledge is called pramana.

The Carvaka holds that perception is the only pramana or dependable source of knowledge.

CRITICISMHe criticizes the possibility of the other sources of knowledge like inference and testimony which are regarded as valid pramanas by many philosophers.

INFERENCE IS NOT CERTAIN

If inference is to be regarded as pramanas, it must yield knowledge about which we can have no doubt which must be true to reality.

Inference is an uncertain leap from known to the unknown.

For, it depends on a universal relation between the middle and the major term and no such relation can be ascertained.

TESTIMONY IS NOT A SAFE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

Testimony relating to unperceived objects is not reliable.

Even the Vedas are not reliable.

Testimony supported by inference is as uncertain as inference.

METAPHYSICS Metaphysics is the theory of reality.

Matter is only reality, it alone is perceived.

God, soul, heaven, life before death or after death, and any unperceived law cannot be believed in, because they are all beyond perception.

THE WORLD IS MADE OF FOUR ELEMENTS

Matter is composed of four elements.

Ether (akasa)Air (vayu)Fire (agni)Water (ap)Earth (ksiti)

CARVAKAS VIEW IN PANCHABUTA TATVA

The Carvaka rejects ether, because its existence is cannot be perceived.

The material world is therefore is made of the for perceptible elements.

Not only non-living material objects but also living organisms, like plants animal bodies, are composed of these four elements.

THERE IS NO SOUL

The Carvakas admit that the existence of the consciousness is proved by perception.

The soul is nothing but the living body, with the quality of consciousness.

If the existence of a soul apart from the body is not proved, there is no possibility of proving its immortality.

THERE IS NO GODThe supposition of God as a

creator is un-necessary. The world comes into existence by the spontaneous combination of material elements.

The Carvakas, therefore, prefer atheism.

A QUESTION? Do we not require an efficient cause like

God as a shaper and designer who turns the material elements into this wonderful world, like a potter shapes the pot with his efficiency?

Carvakas : The material elements themselves have got each its fixed nature (svabhava). It is by the natures and laws inherent in them that they combine together to from this world.

ETHICS Ethics is the science of morality. It

discusses problems like :

What is the highest goal man can achieve?

What should be the end of human conduct?

What is the standard of moral judgment?

CARVAKAS’ METAPHYSICAL THEORIES IN CONFORMITY WITH ETHICAL

PROBLEMS Heaven is a myth and cannot be the goal

of life.

Liberation as freedom from all pains, is an impossible ideal.

Pleasure though mixed with pain, is the only possible good.

Pleasure is the ideal of life.

CARVAKAS THE HEDONISTS

If we remember that our existence is confined to the existence of the body and to this life, we must regard the pleasure arising in the body as the only good thing we can obtain.

The Carvakas ethics may called therefore, hedonism or the theory that pleasure is the highest goal.

CONCLUSION Like the Epicureans of Greece, the

Carvakas in India have been more hated than understood.

Carvaka in the mind of people at large is a term of reproach.

But, it is useful for student of philosophy to remember as well what Indian philosophy owes to the Carvaka.

CONTRIBUTON OF THE CARVAKAS

The Carvaka view that no inference can yield certain knowledge is the view of many contemporary Western thinkers like the pragmatists and logical positivists. So it may be noted that the contribution of the Carvaka epistemology is not insignificant.

CONTRIBUTON OF THE CARVAKAS

It is true that some Carvakas advocate a life of gross sensual pleasures. But a distinction found sometimes between the cunning (dhurta) and cultured (susiksita) Carvakas makes it likely that the Carvakas were not all of the same gross, uncultured type.