Epistemology from the view point of Nyaya system
The Nyaya scholars accepted four means of obtaining knowledge. Those are Perception, Inference, Comparison, and Verbal Testimony or Word. Perception occupies the foremost position in the Nyaya epistemology. Perception is defined by sense-object contact and can be of two types: a) Ordinary perception involving the six senses. Those are sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste and awareness of these by the mind.b) Extra-ordinary perception that involves Samanyalakshana, Jñanalakshana and Yoga. Of the different sources of knowledge perception is the most important. Perception has direct apprehension. There are different factors in the act of perception. Those are the senses, their objects, the contact of the senses with their objects, and cognition produced by this contact Perception can be of two types, laukika (ordinary) and alaukika (extraordinary).Ordinary perception is of six types - visual-by eyes, olfactory-by nose, auditory-by ears, tactile-by skin, gustatory-by tongue and mental-by mind. Extraordinary. perception is of three types, viz., Samanyalakshana (perceiving generality from a particular object), Jñanalakshana (when one sense organ can also perceive qualities not attributable to it, as when seeing a chili, one knows that it would be bitter or hot), and Yogaja (when certain human beings, from the power of Yoga, can perceive past, present and future and have supernatural abilities, either complete or some). Anumana literally means measuring after something. It is the knowledge follows after knowledge. From the knowledge of the sign we get the knowledge. The Nyaya school classified inference into several types: inference for oneself, inference for others, Purvavat (inferring an unperceived effect from a perceived cause), Sheshavat (inferring an unperceived cause from a perceived effect), and Samanyatodrishta (when inference is not based on causation but on uniformity of co-existence)
Śabda or verbal testimony is defined as the statement of a trustworthy person, and consists in understanding its meaning. It can be of two types, Vaidika which are the words of the four sacred Vedas, and are described as the Word of God, having been composed by God, and Laukika, or words and writings of trustworthy human beings. Vaidika testimony is preferred as the infallible word of God, and Laukika testimony must by its nature be questioned and overruled by more trustworthy knowledge.
Comparison, called Upamana, is the knowledge of the relationship between a word and the object denoted by the word. It is produced by the knowledge of resemblance or similarity; given some pre-description of the new object beforehand.comprison is the means by which we gain the knowledge of thing from its similarity to another thing previously known.
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