Charvaka Epistemology: Ancient Indian Philosophy On " Materialism"And it's Drawbacks

            Brihaspati ( founder of charvaka                      philosophy) talking with  a king 

 Charvaka is a crude , rudimentary form of philosophy. The charvaka philosophy mostly based on the notion of perception and experience being the only source of veridical knowledge. Charvakas believe that  anything which beyond experience is not acceptable as a source of knowledge. They refutes metaphysical aspects of  existence and refutes the presence of Brahman ( God) and Aatman( essence of One's individual soul). 

They only relie upon the five senses,and reality to them is just a projection of those senses. Hence, in a way  Charvakas are Empiricists  of ancient school of Philosophy.

This Charvaka philosophy originated in India in 600 BCE ,though the name of the founder of this philosophy is disputable. Some say ,the founder is Brihaspati who has  also written Brihaspati Sutra but some say founder was philosopher charvaka himself .Now let's talk about the philosophical aspects of it and it's epistemology. 

There are three fundamentals of this epistemology.

1. Perception is only veridical source of knowledge :  This is the most important aspect  of this epistemology . Perception is a product of these five senses ,which generally comes from experience.  For Charvakas experience comes in two ways . They called classified the set of perception in two categories which are external perception and inner perception. 

External perception or experience happens when any five sense or one certain sense out of five senses interact with external world generally with materials or objects or with people. And internal perception manifests when one's mind perceive events ,for them mind is a inner instrument for perception. 

 This  Theory ,do not allow someone to go beyond the senses to seek metaphysical aspects of the  existance ,but rather emphasis on notion of refutation of metaphysics. 

2. Inference is "Conditional":   Charvakas only believe perception being veridical and do not allow to  make inferences based on perception ,because they think sometimes we have to think critically and to make inferences we have to know all conditions related with  the events which takes place. 

They think   causality  do not always obey innate  or any particular cause and can have many conditions which can give birth to a certain event and since we often do not have access to all conditions hence making inferences are prone to error. Hence for Charvakas inference is not proper source of knowledge. 

3. Refutation of Testimonial evidence: 

Charvakas refutes sabda( sankrit term for testimony) being veridical source of knowledge as they do not believe in that because testimonies consists words or other people's words ,may be the testimonies are true sources but for Charvakas they cannot accept words ,especially words of other people and also refutes scriptures of religion because they don't believe in spiritualism which are for them imperceptible and metaphysical in nature which allows to go beyond the senses to seek knowledge. 

Now ,we can sense that why   charvaka philosophy is called a " materialistic philosophy" which refutes everything ,but not perception ,hence in ancient India it remained stagnant within some community or practitioners . It mostly based on  "Hedonism" ( the idea that sensual pleasures and self indulgence being the highest aim of human life) in later days and " eat good and merry " became the summum bonum ( the idea that all good comes from one supreme good in life ,in this case crude concept of hedonism and Empiricism  being the supreme good for Charvakas) of practitioners of this philosophy ,are the real causes why this philosophy was becoming diminished and diminutive year after year in Ancient India.

These epistemology also don't accept God or any  spirituality  or any kind of ritualism and shows  a sense of  indifference while talking about these metaphysical aspects also a  big reason behind its downfall and it also didn't work upon people's daily life problems and sufferings. This epistemology is hollow and without any newness in it ,also falls in the category of " fallibilism "( the proposition concerning empirical knowledge being the only reality ,though it is unprovable) . 

So  ,that's why charvaka philosophy vanished in 12 th century during mediaeval period from Ancient India.