it is philosphy notes on error.

1. Error
Why do we make a mistake in
perceiving truth
Vaibhav Rathore

2. Contd.
• Non Violence is ultimate truth.
• So said Mahatma Buddha.
• But most of us do not agree to that, where do we make the error.
• The theories of error are called (khyati)
• There are five khyatis:
• Akhyati: Error arises because of failure to discriminate between the true properties of objects.
• So you are walking on the beach in the night and you see something shining like silver . Is it silver or
Oyster(Mother of pearl)
• Why is the confusion? Because you have made an error.
• Error: You can not distinguish between the shine of mother of pearl and silver.
• Because of your limitation you can not arrive at truth.
• This theory further states that their is nothing like absolute untruth or knowledge.
• Ex. If all of you think that non violence is not the ultimate truth, but one man (Mahatma Buddha)
believes the same their has to be an element of truth in that belief.
• So no belief in the world is absolutely untrue.

3. Contd.
• Question: Biggest quarrels in the world have taken over
religion.
• Is democracy good or bad?
• How would you counter this error using theory of
Akhyati ?
• Answer: If even one person believes that his religion is
true/ democracy is good, than it has to be true,
because there is nothing like absolute untruth.
• Similarly if one person believes that the democracy is
bad than it has to have an element of truth.

4. Anyathakhyati
• The second khyati ( Error) is called Anyatha-khyati.
• Error arises because we focus on only one quantity to
arrive at truth ( In last ex. Shininess)
• We presume( from past memory) anything that shines
is silver.
• If we judge a student only by one quality(his grades),
or professor by ( his knowledge) or a Govt. (by its
Prime Minister), We are making the above error of
Anyatha-Khyati.
• Question : Should you judge your future spouse by only
one quality (looks) ?

5. Atmakhyati
• The third Khyati is Atma-khyati.
• Error arises: When we project our mental images
on the outside world.
• Mental is mistaken for real.
• We see a rope in the dark and we mistake it for a
snake.
• We saw that non-violence did not work 100% for
Mahatma Gandhi ( So we have a mental image
that non-violence would never work and we
reject it)

6. Asat-khyati
• Fourth khyati is Asat-khyati
• Due to ignorance we mistake oyster for silver.
• Our own ignorance prevents us from seeing the
truth.
• Because we have never seen oyster,
• People who had never seen a car before would
not understand it and even try to feed it fodder,
because they thought it to be some kind of
animal.
• Cause of error: Ignorance

7. Anirva-chaniya Khyati
• This is the last khyati
• This is the theory of Advatin.(by
Shankarachrya).
• It says since everything is an illusion nothing
can be determinate, so nothing is like true or
false.
• Reason is an adequate instrument to arrive at
truth.