Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya by Haribhadra Sūri
Chapter 5 – A Line of Demarcation between the first four and last four Yogadṛṣṭis [57 of 121]
Chapter 5.4 – The Fallacious argument (kutarka) [13 of 32]
Nature of a fallacious argument [5 of 10]
(3) It gives rise to many confusions in the process of concluding any proposition [2 of 4]
To establish his predicate “every substance is momentary” the disputant would take resort to illustrations. He says that the fire burns and the water makes things wet because such is their very nature. Similarly, the nature of a substance is momentary. The disputant represents the kṣaṇikavādin Buddhists. The Buddhist system of logic states that the momentary nature of a substance should be established by saying that such is the very nature of a substance.
According to Haribhadrasūrisūri this statement of Buddhist logic has two following flaws.
- The very nature of a substance is beyond the logical comprehension of the non-omniscient ones.
- The propounder of other philosophical schools posits this very nature in an altogether different manner by using various logical arguments.
Every substance is momentary because such is its very nature. If an opponent wants to refute this statement of the disputant, the opponent would present this very nature of a substance in an altogether different manner by giving illustrations. At this point of time no one can judge as who is right because this very nature of a substance cannot be grasped by logical comprehension of the non–omniscient ones. Taking its advantage, the disputant as well as the opponent would go on establishing their own belief. And none of them will be able to point out each other’s mistake as both have resorted to the fallacious arguments.
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