The power of the unseen : the concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its status in the global philosophy of religion
- Author
- Agnieszka Rostalska (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- In this essay, I analyze the Nyāya philosophical concept of “adṛṣṭa” or the ‘unseen force.’ While it was the Vaiśeṣika philosophers who originally developed this notion, the Naiyāyikas adopted it as a significant part of their metaphysical framework. Combining both merits (dharma) and demerits (adharma), it was introduced as the causal principle or the regulating power that bounds not only the individual, as it impacts one’s karma but also the world or universe at large. Moreover, even *God is bound by adṛṣṭa, which makes Nyāya metaphysical theory prone to the prevalent in the philosophy of religion problem of theodicy. In this context, I highlight the centrality of collective or group (rather than individual) actions and the redistribution of their outcomes. After a brief systematization of the concept of adṛṣṭa, I explore its unique meaning offered by the Nyāya rational “theologians,” particularly Jayanta and Udayana. Notably, the latter incorporates it into one of his arguments for the existence of *God (Īśvara). My cross-cultural goal is to accentuate a worldview that avoids undue emphasis on the category of “evil,” a tendency relatively underrepresented in the philosophy of religion. To provide a comparative example, I illustrate how the concept of pāpa, or evil action, closely related to adharma, differs from the Christian notion of sin.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JBN9M0SK5DSWSEHAKXQZRWQX
- MLA
- Rostalska, Agnieszka. “The Power of the Unseen : The Concept of Adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and Its Status in the Global Philosophy of Religion.” Conceptualizing Categories : Texts and Context in Indian Philosophy, Springer, 2025.
- APA
- Rostalska, A. (2025). The power of the unseen : the concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its status in the global philosophy of religion. In Conceptualizing categories : texts and context in Indian philosophy. Springer.
- Chicago author-date
- Rostalska, Agnieszka. 2025. “The Power of the Unseen : The Concept of Adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and Its Status in the Global Philosophy of Religion.” In Conceptualizing Categories : Texts and Context in Indian Philosophy. Springer.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Rostalska, Agnieszka. 2025. “The Power of the Unseen : The Concept of Adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and Its Status in the Global Philosophy of Religion.” In Conceptualizing Categories : Texts and Context in Indian Philosophy. Springer.
- Vancouver
- 1.Rostalska A. The power of the unseen : the concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its status in the global philosophy of religion. In: Conceptualizing categories : texts and context in Indian philosophy. Springer; 2025.
- IEEE
- [1]A. Rostalska, “The power of the unseen : the concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its status in the global philosophy of religion,” in Conceptualizing categories : texts and context in Indian philosophy, Springer, 2025.
@incollection{01JBN9M0SK5DSWSEHAKXQZRWQX,
abstract = {{In this essay, I analyze the Nyāya philosophical concept of “adṛṣṭa” or the ‘unseen force.’ While it was the Vaiśeṣika philosophers who originally developed this notion, the Naiyāyikas adopted it as a significant part of their metaphysical framework. Combining both merits (dharma) and demerits (adharma), it was introduced as the causal principle or the regulating power that bounds not only the individual, as it impacts one’s karma but also the world or universe at large. Moreover, even *God is bound by adṛṣṭa, which makes Nyāya metaphysical theory prone to the prevalent in the philosophy of religion problem of theodicy. In this context, I highlight the centrality of collective or group (rather than individual) actions and the redistribution of their outcomes.
After a brief systematization of the concept of adṛṣṭa, I explore its unique meaning offered by the Nyāya rational “theologians,” particularly Jayanta and Udayana. Notably, the latter incorporates it into one of his arguments for the existence of *God (Īśvara). My cross-cultural goal is to accentuate a worldview that avoids undue emphasis on the category of “evil,” a tendency relatively underrepresented in the philosophy of religion. To provide a comparative example, I illustrate how the concept of pāpa, or evil action, closely related to adharma, differs from the Christian notion of sin.}},
author = {{Rostalska, Agnieszka}},
booktitle = {{Conceptualizing categories : texts and context in Indian philosophy}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
title = {{The power of the unseen : the concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its status in the global philosophy of religion}},
year = {{2025}},
}