combination of things (meanings of words), and hence has no power to
denote a thing devoid of all difference.--The conclusion is that sound
cannot be a means of knowledge for a thing devoid of all difference.




Pratyaksha--even of the nirvikalpaka kind--proves difference.

Perception in the next place--with its two subdivisions of
non-determinate (nirvikalpaka) and determinate (savikalpaka)
perception--also cannot be a means of knowledge for things devoid of
difference. Determinate perception clearly has for its object things
affected with difference; for it relates to that which is distinguished
by generic difference and so on. But also non-determinate perception has
for its object only what is marked with difference; for it is on the
basis of non-determinate perception that the object distinguished by
generic character and so on is recognised in the act of determinate
perception. Non-determinate perception is the apprehension of the object
in so far as destitute of some differences but not of all difference.
Apprehension of the latter kind is in the first place not observed ever
to take place, and is in the second place impossible: for all
apprehension by consciousness takes place by means of some distinction
'This is such and such.' Nothing can be apprehended apart from some
special feature of make or structure, as e.g. the triangularly shaped
dewlap in the case of cows. The true distinction between non-determinate
and determinate perception is that the former is the apprehension of the
first individual among a number of things belonging to the same class,
while the latter is the apprehension of the second, third, and so on,
individuals. On the apprehension of the first individual cow the