gregji/epistemology

[Guest guest]

friends,i am continuing my epistemological nonsense with gregji.

namaste gregji,

this post is fyi only.our previous discussions on perception

have been very fruitful but i particularly felt that my views lacked depth

and focus.well,like i had posted ;i am currently going thru' METHODS OF

KNOWLEDGE -by sw.satprakashananda,it's mostly based on the vedanta paribhasa

and gives the vedantic position on epistemology(i am sure you must be

already aware of it).well,i give certain very interesting excerpts from it:

 

pg-64-66

"the advaita view of the sensible universe may be defined as metaphysical or

absolute idealism.it is neither objective realism nor subjective idealism.

....

vedanta has due regard for the evidence of the senses so far as the external

world is concerned .sense perception is the foundation of our knowledge of

the physical world.hence vedanta stresses the point that that our view of

physical objects must be determined by the nature of sense perception,and

not vice versa.we should not explain sense perception by preconcieved ideas

of the physical world.it is the universal character of sense perception that

we apprehend the objects as concrete entities existing in space and time

independently of the senses and the mind.our determination of exitence and

nonexistence must rest on this indubitable fact.we cannot alter fact,nor

should we deny it.all that we have to do is explain it.as stated in the

brahma-sutras,'non existence of [external objects] is not true,because they

are experienced'.had they been non existent like the horns of a hare they

could not be perceived by the senses....

 

it is true that sense perception is not always reliable.it is often found to

be deceptive...yet reason has to work on observed facts.it can differentiate

perception from hallucination,and valid cognition from illusion.when one

experience is wrong,another experience contradicts it,as in the case of

mirage or dream.that which is uncontradicted must be acknowledged as real

,as far as the domain of experience goes.vedanta accepts sense perception as

the authentic source of knowledge in the empirical realm ,just as it accepts

the authority of the sruti with regard to the knowledge of the transcendent

reality..

according to vedanta the difference between the subjective and the objective

is quite valid on the relative plane.one cannot be reduced to the

other.vedanta recognizes the empirical reality of individual selves,internal

ideas and external objects.these three orders of existence are different

from one another as facts of experience and are interrelated.they form a

triple existence.to deny any one of the three,or to identify one with

another ,is not right.none of them ,as such ,is ultimately real.from the

absolute standpoint all three are nonexistent....mental ideas and physical

objects are both appearances from the standpoint of fundamental reality.but

so far as the phenomenal order is concerned they endure as distinct

entities."

 

rgds-devendra