Apoha Theory of Meaning – UGC NET Question

The apoha theory, associated with Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, explains how general terms can function without positing real universals. A word like “cow” is said to denote its object by excluding non instances (“not non cow”), so meaning is understood through exclusion rather than direct grasp of a universal.

Option A:
Option A wrongly suggests that apoha is about perception directly revealing universals, whereas Buddhists typically deny real universals and take perception to apprehend particulars.

Option B:
Option B correctly captures apoha as the view that words refer by excluding what they are not, giving a semantics based on exclusion rather than on real universals.

Option C:
Option C brings in the issue of scriptural infallibility, which is a different debate and not the focus of apoha.

Option D:
Option D talks about the relation between inference and perception in general epistemology, not about the specific semantic problem apoha addresses.