Editing Carvaka School of Thought in Indian Philosophy (section)

=== '''Metaphysics''' ===
Metaphysics is the theory of reality. Since perception is the only valid form of knowledge, Matter becomes the only reality. It alone is cognisable by senses. What is material is real. God, soul, heaven, life before birth or after death, and any unperceived law cannot be believed in, because they are all beyond perception. The only things whose existence can be acknowledged and whose actuality can be insisted upon are material items. Thus, the Carvakas arrive to support the thesis of materialism, which holds that nothing exists outside of matter.

==== '''The World is Made of Four Elements''' ====
Common Hindu thought recognizes five elements which compose the material world - earth, water, fire, air and akasa. While the first four of these are matters of ordinary sense experience, the last is the result of inference. The Carvaka, because he admits only the immediate evidence of the senses, denies the last (Hiriyanna, 1993, 191)<sup>7</sup>. The four perceptible elements are thus believed to make up the material world. All things, including the mind, are a result of a particular arrangement of these four elements. Although the components are eternal, their combinations can be created and destroyed. It is believed that consciousness is merely a byproduct of matter.  It is created when the components come together in a specific ratio. It is found always associated with the body and vanishes when the body disintegrates. The universe is accepted as uncreated, composed of matter but of which all that exists is produced. 

==== '''Self or Soul in the Carvaka View''' ====
According to Cārvākas, when the four forms of matter, namely, earth, water, fire and air combine in a peculiar way, there result in what we call a body. Life, breath (prāna) and consciousness are present only in such a body. The particular combination of elements which make life and consciousness possible is called the self, according to Carvakas, beyond which there is no immaterial self or soul. The origin of consciousness or intelligence comes from the combination of elements as liquor’s inebriating power comes from the mixture of ingredients (Heera, 2011, p. 70-71)<sup>6</sup>. “That intelligence which is found to be embodied in modified forms of non-intelligent elements is produced in the same way in which red colour is produced from the combination of betel, areca nut and lime.” (''Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy'', 1882)

Consciousness is the result of emergent and dialectical evolution. It is an epiphenomenon, a by-product of matter. Given the four elements and their particular combination, consciousness manifests itself in the living body. ‘Matter secretes mind as the liver secretes bile.’ (Sharma, 1962, 32)<sup>11</sup> The so-called soul is simply the conscious living body   (Caitanya-visista-dehaevaatma). The soul is, therefore, the body, endued with consciousness. There is no proof of the existence of the soul apart from the body<sup>.</sup>. 

In the Sarva Darshan Sangraha, it has been quoted -

''In this school, there are four elements, earth, water, fire and air;''

''And from these four elements alone is intelligence produced,''

''Just like the intoxicating power from the quinoa, etc, mixed together;''

''Since in “I am fat,” “I am lean,” these attributes abide in the same subject,'' 

''And since fatness, etc, reside only in the body, it alone is the soul and no other,'' 

''And such phrases as “my body” are only significant metaphorically.'' 


The arguments advanced by Carvakas against the permanence of the soul and its transmigration from one body to another can be summarized as follows -

# Why does a person not     recall things that happened in his past existence if the soul changes     bodies in a cycle of births and deaths?
# Why does the soul never     return in a way that can be seen if it is reborn into another body? If he     who departs from the body goes to another world, how is it that he comes     not back again, restless for the love of his kindred?
# According to the     Carvakas, it is foolish to believe in reincarnation as evidenced by the     so-called believers' own lack of genuine belief. If the beast slain in the     Jyotisama rite will itself go to heaven, why then does not the sacrificer     forthwith offer his own father? (''Review of the Different Systems of     Hindu Philosophy'', 1882, 10)
# No one has ever seen the     transfer of consciousness from one body to another. 


Naturally, the denial of the atman, which plays a significant role in the other Indian systems, sparked the fiercest debate; theoretically, there is no disputing Carvaka's viewpoint. The existence of the soul or atman in the conventional sense cannot be proven. In fact, some orthodox philosophers are aware of this, which is why they emphasise the validity of the opposing view—that the body and the soul are not separate—in their arguments against the Carvaka theory. If consciousness is an essential property of the human body, it should be inseparable from it as Carvaka claims. But it is not. In swoons, fits, epilepsy, dreamless sleep etc. the living body is seen without consciousness. Conversely, in dreams, consciousness can be seen without a living body.  An awakened dreamer disowns the dream body but retains ownership of the dream consciousness. Even though dream consciousness is not directly challenged in waking life, the dream objects are sublated there. When a person wakes up from a dream in which they saw a tiger, they understand that the tiger was simply a dream, but the fact that they saw a tiger in their dream continues to be true. This demonstrates that awareness transcends the material body, which is merely its instrument and not its cause and endures through the three stages of waking life, dream life, and profound sleep life (Sharma, 1962, 33). Once more, the fact that consciousness cannot be felt outside of a physical body does not indicate that it is merely a byproduct of matter. For instance, the eye cannot see in the dark. Light is necessary for sight, yet it cannot be said to be the cause of sight. A simple coexistence is not a cause. The two bull horns, which are always found together, cannot be taken to mean anything. The body should not be viewed as the cause of awareness because it is merely a tool for its manifestation.

==== '''Denial of the Existence of God''' ====
The doctrine unavoidably rejects any and all belief in a supernatural or transcendental being, along with any and all belief in the particular subjects of religion and philosophy.As was already mentioned, the system only accepts that which is verified by perception, or pratyaksha, hence there is no room for anything transcendental. God, whose existence cannot be perceived, fares no better than the soul. The world is created by the elements of matter, negating the need for a creator. Carvakas are faced with the counter that just like the production of an earthen pot, in addition to clay which is its material cause, requires a potter who shapes the material into the desired form, similarly, an efficient cause like God is indispensable for shaping and designing the material elements into this beautiful world. In reply, the Carvakas state that the material elements themselves have got each its static nature (svabhava). By nature and the laws inherent in them, they combine to form this world. There is thus no necessity for God. There is no evidence that the world's objects are the outcome of any design. They can be logically explained as the accidental byproducts of the elements. The Carvakas, therefore, prefer atheism.The only supreme is the earthly monarch whose existence is proved by all the world’s eyesight, and the only liberation is the dissolution of the body (''Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy'', 1882, 4). In the same breath, Carvakas deny the existence of souls, virtue (dharma) and vice (adharma), merit (punya) and demerit (papa), actions (karma) and their fruits (phala). They reject liberation, heaven, hell, future life, transmigration, the Law of Karma, and pre-existence. They do not exist because they are not perceived. There are no obligations related to castes and life stages (varnashrama dharma), which could result in rewards like happiness and unhappiness. The material world is perceived, and therefore existent. The variety in the world is natural (Sinha, 1956)<sup>13</sup>.