Svatah Pramanya

The doctrine of the self-validity of knowledge or Svatah Pramanya forms the foundation on which the whole structure of the Mimamsa philosophy is based. Most Indian philosophers subscribe to some version of the thesis that a thought process is true. Nyaya philosophers and Buddhists deny that intrinsically cognitions are true. They argue that an extra confirmatory factor is required. While success in practice is needed to reveal truth, however it does not mean that truth equals successful activity. Nyaya philosophy believes in the principle that nothing can exercise its proper function on its own.

The Purva Mimamsaka ritual tradition insists that only through Vedic scriptures one can know about social and religious duties. The authority of the Vedas is self-validating. Purva Mimamsakas, Samkhya and Vedantins assert that cognitions are valid as the very same conditions that generated the cognition also make it true. If cognitions are true they need not be confirmed by successful activity. Knowledge that has a true belief does not require subjective certainty. A cognitive state with a reliable causal history is knowledge immediately upon its occurrence and does not need the subject to check and justify it. A belief is justified if there is an appropriate causal connection between its content and what it is exactly about.

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