Saṁśaya

Saṁśaya (T. the tshom), is translated as "doubt," "indecision," "uncertainty," etc.

Saṁśaya is a near-synonym of vicikitsā.

Saṁśaya is the third of the sixteen categories of the Nyaya school.

Jan Westerhoff states:

Doubt can take different forms. We may know, for example, that an object has one property, but be uncertain about whether it also has another. If we see a pole-like object in the mist, we are certain about its apparent shape, but in doubt as to whether it is alive (in case the thing we see is a man) or not (if it is a column). Or two people may hold conflicting opinions, and, being unable to decide the matter for ourselves, we are uncertain which one is correct.

Vātsyāyana distinguishes five different kinds of doubt. What is common to all of them is that they describe a mental state that alternates between two conflicting notions relative to the same object. Regarding the pole-like object, the mind oscillates between attaching the property ‘man’ or ‘column’ to it, just as, if we hear two conflicting arguments on whether there is life after death, we will be undecided about classifying a recently deceased as existent or as nonexistent.

In Crushing the Categories, Nagarjuna refuted the Nyaya presentation on the nature of doubt.

Sources

• Nagarjuna (2018), Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakarana), translated by Westerhoff, Jan, Wisdom Publications