Hinduism has six theistic schools of philosophy (astika darshana). The first one is called Nyaya. Today, Nyaya in Hindi & Tamil mean justice. This was originally developed as a system of logic. Justice has to follow logic.
The originator of this philosophy was Gautama. The treatises are Nyaya Shastra, Nyaya Sutra & Nyaya Bhashya. A Shastra is a detailed treatise, a Sutra is a concise explanation of the philosophy, while a Bhashya is a commentary.
Nyaya states that every object has a nature (svarupa) that differentiates it from others.
Nyaya accepts four ways of obtaining knowledge, called Pramaanams. They are:
* Pratyaksha (perception): If I see a fire, I know that the fire exists.
* Anumaana (inference): If I see smoke, I can infer that there's a fire.
* Shabdha (sound): If a trusted source tells me there's a fire in a different area (say in Radio or TV), there is a fire in that area.
* Upamaana (analogy).
It also frames the rules for a good debate (Samvaada) & compares it to the lesser Jalpa Vaada (egoistic debate), Vithanda Vaada (rule-less abusive) & Vivaada (circular reasoning). The debater has to restate the opponent's argument in a satisfactory manner (Purva Paksha). The conclusion of an argument is called Drstantha.
A type of the Nyaya philosophy explaining the world is the Matsya Nayaya (Fish Law), which is defined by Chanakya in his Arthashastra. This means Big fish eats the little fish, jungle law, or the strongest survive. Society can either tend towards Matsya Nyaya (strong overpower the weak) or Dharma (a system that protects the weak & the innocent).
Nyaya also has the first theistic arguments for the existence of a divinity, refuting the atheistic arguments of the Charvakas (atheists).
Nyaya was developed further into Navya Nyaya starting with a scholar called Udayana. This has a historical connection to modern day computers. What does an old logical philosophy have to do with computers? Here is some background on some interesting people and an even more interesting letter.
George Everest was working for the East India company as a geographer & surveyor of a median arc. (Trivia: Ujjaini used to be the median of ancient India). Mt. Everest, the tallest peak in the world, is named in his honor. He had a niece, Mary Everest Boole.
Mary was the wife of George Boole. George Boole developed Boolean Algebra which is the foundation of computers.
Boole worked with Augustus De Morgan. De Morgan was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India (his father worked in the army of the East India company). He introduced mathematical induction, algebra & set theory. De Morgan promoted the work of self-taught Indian mathematician, Ram Chandra. Ram Chandra's story is similar to the story of another self-taught Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujam. Ram Chandra is called De Morgan's Ramanujam.
Boole & De Morgan worked with Charles Babbage. He has been called the father of computers.
Mary Boole wrote this letter to Indian scientist, Jagdish Chandra Bose.
This letter has some interesting information. She says that Babbage, De Morgan & George Boole were intensely Hinduized and that her uncle, George Everest, acted as an intermediary. She praises Ram Chundra's work and objects to British trampling of Hindu culture while exhorting them to learn.
De Morgan states in his book: Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic, published in 1860, that the two races who founded Mathematics in Greek & Sanskrit have developed independent systems of logic. Intriguingly, there are Greek & Persian stories that Callisthenes, the Greek historian who accompanied Alexander, took Indian logic texts to Greece.
Jonar Ganeri, author of Indian Logic, thinks that Babbage may have been influenced by Hindu thought through Henry Thomas Colebrooke, who is considered the first great European Sanskrit scholar.
Nyaya's debate rules follow a principle called Chatushkoti (4 sided negation). This is similar to the concept of a confusion matrix in computer science. It acknowledges that there are two issues with every argument.
1. Our own knowledge is limited & is reflected in our arguments.
2. Language itself has bias & is incomplete.
Let's consider an example. Consider this statement: A cheetah is the fastest animal. Do you think it is correct? Yes? It does sound reasonable, right?
What if there is some animal in the jungle that is not discovered yet? This is the limitation of our own knowledge.
How do you define a cheetah? Is a jaguar or leopard a cheetah?
What ages will you measure a cheetah? Can I compare the speed of a baby cheetah or a single slow cheetah to make the determination?
How do you define fastest? How short or long is the period of time that you'll measure? Is it an average? Median? Range? Or fastest cheetah ever recorded?
How do you define an animal? Is it only land, or can you consider sea & air?
This is the limitation of language. What appeared to be correct at first is now unclear, unless it is clearly defined.
Jains also have a similar yet different seven fold system system of logic for debates (Syaad-vaada) called Saptibhanginaaya. This requires the restating of the original hypothesis (Purva Paksha) without generalizing in the argument.
Sources:
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/114/12/2570.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya#Nyaya_on_God_and_salvation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_De_Morgan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Morgan%27s_laws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole
https://www.scribd.com/document/61916350/Indian-Thought-and-Western-Science-in-the-Nineteenth-Century
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/de-gruyter/why-dr-j-c-bose-did-not-reply-to-mary-boole-s-open-letter-of-1901-qcqr2c8822
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.04994.pdf
https://swarajyamag.com/books/did-logic-go-from-india-to-greece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya#Nyaya_on_God_and_salvation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramchundra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Thomas_Colebrooke
http://indiafacts.org/chatuskoti-four-sided-negation/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_animals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catuṣkoṭi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusion_matrix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekantavada#Sy.C4.81dv.C4.81da
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