Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001180
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 328
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 15 MB

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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
the primal perceptual cognition unconfirmed by repeated experience. Since such cognition has not as yet been ascertained to stand in unfailing correspondence with the object, its validity is determined (1) by a subsequent confirmatory cognition of the same object, or (2) by a cognition of its pragmatic consequences, or (3) by the cognition of an object invariably or universally concomitant with it. This establishes the fact that validity is determined by other means. It is called extrinsic validity. Classification of the Means of Valid Knowledge :
The means of valid knowledge are of two kinds. Is this two-fold classification to be understood in the terms of what has been propounded by the Buddhists, viz., perception and inference' or in a different way? The Jaina classification is certainly different. Their two kinds are known as direct and indirect.? From the practical point of view they are called perceptual and non-perceptual. According to the Cārvāka, there is no other means of knowledge than perception (pratyaksa or
ct knowledge). In order to refute his view, it is said that there is means of valid knowledge other than perception and it is proved by the determination of the validity and invalidity of knowledge, by the knowledge of other men's thoughts, and by negation." The realisation of the distinction between valid and invalid cognitions, of another man's thought, and the negation of what transcends sense-intuition are not possible without the help of other means of valid knowledge such as inference.
Furthermore, the validity of even perceptual cognition can be established only on the evidence of its unfailing correspondence with the fact. Why should the Cārvāka not acknowledge the validity of non-perceptual cognitions, arising
1. Pratyaksamanumānam ca --- Nyāya-bindu, 1.3. 2. Pramānam dvidha. Pratyaksam paroksaṁ ca - Pramāna
mimāmsā, I. 1. 9-10. 3. Ibid., 1. 1.11.