Abstract

Truth and falsity are multidimensional concepts which play an important role in epistemology of all schools of Indian philosophical thought and also have relevance in metaphysical formulations as well. In this paper the Nyāya view of truth and falsity has been analysed from the epistemological stand point whereas the Advaita Vedanta concept of truth and falsity has been presented from the metaphysical point of view. The words 'true' and 'false' are supposed to represent predicates applicable to sentences in the indicative mood or to their meaning called propositions, or to beliefs concerning them. In Western philosophy, different theories of truth have been offered under the labels of correspondence theory, coherence theory, pragmatism, and semantic theory. Of these, the first and the last ones are taken to be acceptable theories in respect of the nature of truth. The Nyāya theory of truth has a great similarity with the correspondence theory of truth.