ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall confine our attention to illusory perceptions. The treatment of Indian philosophers is more psychological than physiological. And their psychological analysis of illusory perception is closely allied with the determination of its epistemological value and ontological basis. Indian philosophers treat psychology always as the basis of epistemology and ontology; and their psychological analysis is sometimes coloured by their metaphysical presuppositions. They do not give an exhaustive classification of the different kinds of illusions with reference to all the sense-organs. But still they give a psychological classification of the principal types of illusions. Their enumeration of the different sources of illusions is almost complete. The different schools of Indian philosophers have tackled the problem of illusion in different ways. They give us slightly different accounts about its psychological nature. There is a hot controversy among them about its ontological basis. Different schools of Indian philosophers have advanced different theories of illusion, and their polemics against one another exhibit their wonderful power of psychological analysis and rare metaphysical acumen. Western psychologists are more concerned with the physiological conditions of illusions than with their psychological nature. Their treatment is more physiological than psychological, and their treatment of illusions from the epistemological and ontological points of view is extremely meagre in comparison with the Indian treatment.
