 This passage is suggestive: it reveals that for Śrīharṣa, rational inquiry—unconstrained by faith in scripture—cannot be a guide to the truth. The professed goal of the Nyāya system was to lay down a system of rational inquiry which, irrespective of the domain of inquiry, would allow one to progress towards to the truth in that domain. But Śrīharṣa thinks this is impossible. On the one hand, his refutation-arguments are supposed to illustrate that such systems of rational inquiry are self-undermining: their own rules can be used to undermine the fundamental ontological and epistemological categories that these systems rely on. On the other hand, Śrīharṣa wants to show that we cannot even engage in inquiry in good faith, and that arguments presented in the course of such inquiry—framed independently of scriptural testimony—cannot have any defeating force against scriptural testimony. The best way of making progress towards the truth is to have faith in scripture, and let reason occupy a secondary place.