Charvaka

Charvaka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक; IAST: Cārvāka), also known as Lokāyata, is an ancient school of Indian materialism.[1] It is considered as one example of the atheistic schools in the Ancient Indian philosophies.[a][3][b][5][c] Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects ritualism.[4][6][7][8][9] It was a well-attested belief system in ancient India.[d]

Brihaspati, a philosopher, is traditionally referred to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokāyata philosophy, although some scholars dispute this.[10][11] Charvaka developed during the Hindu reformation period in the first millennium BCE, after Buddhism was established by Gautama Buddha and Jainism was re-organized by Parshvanatha.[12] Its teachings have been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras, sutras, and Indian epic poetry.[13]

In other words, the Charvaka epistemology states that whenever one infers a truth from a set of observations or truths, one must acknowledge doubt; inferred knowledge is conditional.[14]

Charvaka is categorized as one of the nāstika or "heterodox" schools of Indian philosophy.[15][16]

  1. ^ Seema Chishti (21 August 2018). "Indian rationalism, Charvaka to Narendra Dabholkar". The Indian Express.
  2. ^ Thomas 2014, pp. 164–165.
  3. ^ Raman 2012, pp. 549–574.
  4. ^ a b Tiwari 1998, p. 67.
  5. ^ Cooke 2006, p. 84.
  6. ^ Perrett 1984, pp. 161–174.
  7. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 21–32.
  8. ^ Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, pp. 187, 227–234.
  9. ^ Flint 1899, p. 463.
  10. ^ Bhattacharya 2002.
  11. ^ Jeaneane Fowler (2015). A. C. Grayling (ed.). The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Humanism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 114 with footnote 17. ISBN 978-1-119-97717-9.
  12. ^ Quack 2011, p. 50:See footnote 3
  13. ^ Balcerowicz, Piotr (2016), "Jayarāśi", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 8 July 2020
  14. ^ Kamal 1998, pp. 13–16.
  15. ^ Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, pp. 1–3, Contents.
  16. ^ Flood 1996, p. 224.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).