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The Central Philosophy of Jainism
It is obvious, however, that the fourth predicate here ('the joint and simultaneous affirmation and denial' ), which is Vidyananda's explanation of the term "inexpressible") must be taken to be a unitary whole, a primary predicate. For otherwise it would be difficult to explain the sevenfold combination with Mathematical computation. And Vidyananda himself has emphasized that there are seven and only seven alternatives in the Jaina system.
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A common objection against the Jaina sevenfold formula has been that instead of accepting only seven alternative predicates in this manner, one might go up to a hundred or a thousand (i. e., to an unlimited number). Thus a critic like Kumārila has said, "Even one hundred alternatives can be generated through generous use of the method used (by the Jainas) to generate only seven alternatives.'111
But certainly this is not a fair criticism of the Jaina method. It is based on a misunderstanding. Thus, Vidyananda goes on to point out that there may be an infinite number of properties or predicates that are ascribable to a subject. The Jaina Anekanta doctrine of reality only welcomes such attribution. For, according to the Anekanta doctrine, a thing or entity is supposed to possess infinite or innumerable aspects or characters. But the sevenfold formula (i. e., the seven alternative formulations of predicates using the three principal modes, positive, negative and the neutral) will be applicable to each attribution of a property, i. e., to each individual predication. In other words, as long as we accept only three basic qualities of one individual predicate (positive, negative and the neutralized), we will get only seven possible combinations.112.
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