the highest end of life, i.e., liberation, can be attained only through a right knowledge of reality. But a true knowledge of reality presupposes an understanding of what knowledge is, what the sources of knowledge are, how true knowledge is distinguished from wrong knowledge and so forth. In other words, a theory of reality or metaphysics presupposes a theory of knowledge or epistemology. Hence the realism of the Nyāya is based on the theory of knowledge which is the logical foundation of all philosophy. Thus we see that the Nyāya is a system of philosophy, which may be justly characterised
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