Nyaya is one of the six classical schools of Hindu philosophy and is especially concerned with logic, reasoning and the theory of knowledge. Its foundational text, the Nyaya Sutras, is attributed to Gautama, also called Akshapada. The school holds that valid knowledge can be gained through four means: perception, inference, comparison and reliable testimony, and it set out detailed rules of debate and argument. It also developed arguments on the existence of God and the self. The school was later joined with Vaisheshika, which provided a theory of nature, and in the medieval period the Navya-Nyaya school introduced a highly refined logic. The dates of its origins are uncertain, and scholars disagree about when the sutras were composed.
Before and after
- 625 BCEBirth of Thales
- 620 BCEBirth of Aesop
- 7th century BCEIntroduction of tetradrachm
- 7th century BCEConstruction of Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- 7th century BCERise of Nyaya
- c. 601 BCEThe Lydians mint the first coins
- c. 600s BCEPhoenician sailors circumnavigate Africa, according to Herodotus
- from 600 BCE to 500 BCEArchaic Greece
- 600 BCEFounding of Milan
More in Society, economy & sport
- from 478 BCE to 403 BCEFounding of Delian League
- 335 BCERise of peripatetic school
- 211 BCEIntroduction of sestertius
- from 8 CE to 73 CERise of Zealotry
- 2nd centuryRise of Montanism
- 27 February 380 CEChristianity becomes the state religion of Rome
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.