Kaṇāda
A figure from the books
#Kanada
Kaṇāda · c. 6th–2nd century BCE
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Natural philosophy — founder of the Vaiśeṣika school; atomist and builder of India's first systematic ontology, the theory of what kinds of things exist.
“India's great atomist was nicknamed "the grain-eater" — and the honest way to honour him is not to claim he scooped modern chemistry, but to see what he actually built: a complete inventory of reality, assembled by argument, in which even the atoms carry their flavours and smells with them.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“Everything you can see is built of invisible, eternal, partless particles — and everything that exists, particles included, falls into six kinds of real things, which can be listed, defined and argued over. Know the list correctly, he taught, and you are on the road to liberation.”
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