Foundations of Indian Psychology, Volume 1

Section 3

Pathways to Knowledge

Introduction

Since antiquity the urge to know the world from within and without has been a major concern for humans and has led to the formulation of various traditions of human inquiry. In general, all such inquiries are tested against the criterion of whether they constitute a systematic, unbiased, and dependable understanding of reality. In this context, a distinction is often made between faith about, and knowledge of some part of reality (the object of knowledge), which is supposed to exist independently. The appreciation of this reality is not reality, but is certainly expected to be a valid (re)presentation of that reality, and it is this, that allows us to work or play with it and create something ...