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Padārtha is aSanskrit word for "categories" inVaisheshika andNyaya schools ofIndian philosophy.[1][2]
The termpadārtha is aportmanteau ofpada, "word" andartha, "meaning" or "referent", and so the termpadārtha indicates "the meaning or referent of words".[3]
Almost all of India's philosophical systems accept liberation as life's ultimate goal; it is thesummum bonum. Each philosophy prescribes the means to that end independently. According toAksapada Gautama, liberation can be attained by true knowledge of the categories orpadārthas.[4] According to theVaisheshika school, all things that exist, which can be conceptualized, and that can be named arepadārthas, the objects of experience.
According toVaisheshika,padārtha or objects of experience can be divided asbhāva (real existence) andabhāva (non-existence). Thebhāva padārthas are of six types, while abhāva was added later.[3] These are:
Nyāya metaphysics recognizes sixteenpadārthas, the second of which, calledprameya, includes the six (or seven) categories of the Vaiśeṣika school.[5] They are:
Padārthas are distinct from thecategories of Aristotle,Kant, andHegel. According to Aristotle, categories are logical classification of predicates; Kant states that categories are only patterns of understanding, while Hegel’s categories are dynamic stages in the development of thought. The Vaiśeṣika categories are a metaphysical classification of all knowable objects.
Aristotle accepts ten categories:
The Vaiśeṣikas instead place the concepts of time and place under substance; relation under quality; inherence, quantity and property under quality. Passivity is considered the opposite of activity. Akṣapāda Gautama enumerates sixteenpadārthas.[6]
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