Jainism as Metaphilosophy

SR No.: 001194
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S Gopalan
Publisher: Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 92
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 5 MB

Page 18

Jainism As Metaphilosophy
ture. If every school of philosophy represented a point of view that was taken, this process of taking a stand required that the thinkers had to think out their positions and not simply stick to a viewpoint.
Today the need for a built-in logic in any system of philosophy is accepted as vitally important but considering the fact that this requirement of a logical structure was insisted upon twenty centuries ago by Indian schools of philosophy, the importance accorded to logic as an aspect of philosophy can well be appreciated. Explaining this aspect of philosophy in classical India, a recent renowned Indian thinker writes:
It is a Logic which is at the same time a full theory of knowledge. The problems it tackles are: (i) what is knowledge, (ii) what is ils relation to object, (iii) types and sub-types of knowledge - perception, inference, etc. with sub-divisions of cach, (iv) sources of valid knowledge (pramāņā) in each such case, (v) the relaLion of knowledge to language, (vi) semantics and syntax, (vii) why and how far lestimony is valid, (viii) elaborate theories of error, (ix) belief and (established) truth -what makes an awareness truc, i.e. theories of validity (prāmanya), (x) indctcrminate perception, judgmental perception and judgment, (xi) nature and types of fallacy, (xii) whether and how far memory is
a source of valid knowledge, cic."
It is obvious from the above that a thorough-going analysis of the logical dimension of philosophy involved going beyond the procedure of inference and examining the limitations of human reason. Reason can thus be seen to have been employed in understanding the limitations of reason. This meant for all schools of philosophy that the realm of reason had to be transcended. The scope and limits of reason thus underlined signifies that while logical analysis is an important dimension of doing philosophy, it does not constitute the bc-all and end-all of the discipline." These ideas are clearly reflected in and elaborated by the Jaina thinkers and this will be indicated at the appropriate place.
je Darśana As Intuition The limitations of reason, as schools of Indian philosophy saw it, signified not that reason was unimportant but that beyond the region of reasoning and thought, there is an experiential realm which makes for the completion of the task of philosophy itself. While the inquiring and