Categories of language and categories of thought in an Indian philosophical text ('Prashastapada’s Collection of Characteristics' of Categories)

Abstract

A fragment from Prashastapada’s (VI century A.D.) treatise (a classical text of the Vaisheshika school of Indian philosophy) has been selected for the analysis on the grounds that it demonstrates two theoretical positions both of which are of importance to the author of the present paper: 1) the correspondence between linguistic and philosophical categories (for example, noun – substance, adjective – quality, action – verb); 2) the typological similarity between Indian and European philosophical traditions which could be traced back to their common Indo-European origins. With Prashastapada, the term pada-artha, interpreted as 'category', means literally 'the object of word', or its referent. The linguistic origins of many terms and concepts in Indian philosophical tradition can be explained by the extremely early development of linguistics in India (the emergence of grammatical tradition dates back to VI–V centuries BC.). The author further discusses some general principles of structure and functioning of Indian philosophy: the culture of philosophical debates, different forms of debates, genres of philosophical literature, elaboration of the logical structure of philosophical texts.