Samkhya

A dualist philosophical system distinguishing pure consciousness from the material world it observes, offering a genuinely different metaphysics from Vedantic non-dualism.

scholarship. Modern scholarship — academic/historical analysis.
Tradition: hinduism Period: late-vedic-to-classical Theme: metaphysics Theme: dualism Theme: philosophy

Samkhya is a philosophical system built on a strict dualism: reality, on this account, ultimately consists of two fundamentally different kinds of thing, consciousness and matter, and confusing them is the root of ordinary suffering. It offers this archive its clearest counterpoint to the non-dual metaphysics developed in Vedanta.

Two irreducible principles

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Related in the archive

Text

The Bhagavad Gita

A 700-verse philosophical dialogue set within the Mahabharata, addressing duty, action, and the nature of the self.

Concept

Atman

A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.

Concept

Purushartha

The classical scheme of four legitimate aims of human life — duty, prosperity, pleasure, and liberation — held in tension.

Concept

Karma

The principle linking action to consequence, understood differently across Indian traditions.

Tradition

Yoga Darshana

The philosophical school systematizing yoga as a disciplined path paired with Samkhya metaphysics, distinct from the broader family of practices covered under the general concept of yoga.

Tradition

Vedanta

A family of interpretive schools centered on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Note

Self and Not-Self

A comparative note on the deepest fault line in Indian philosophy — traditions that affirm an innermost self against the Buddhist analysis that questions it.

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Next → Nyaya A school of formal logic and epistemology, concerned with what counts as a valid means of knowledge and how sound argument can be distinguished from sophistry.