Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

SR No.: 001617
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 272
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Epistemology, Nyay, & Spiritual
File Size: 16 MB

Page 62

58 Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
Hegelian and the Jaina Dialectics
Distinguishing between the Hegelian and the Jaina dialectics T.R.V. Murti observes: "The Hegelian dialectic is a conjunctive or integrating synthesis; at every stage the alternatives are unified and transcended, and this leads to a higher or lower view. The Jaina dialectic is a disjunctive synthesis or alternatives, as we have seen it is more a syncretism than a synthesis." It is true that Jaina writers have failed to emphasize the concept of a system as explicitly as Hegel has done; but it can never mean the concept is totally absent in Jaina Philosophy. The special essence assigned to the pramāṇa type of knowledge just points to the unity of the system involved therein. The Jaina, by emphasizing both the aspects of unity and multiplicity, saves himself from falling into the absolutism of either. Disjunction and conjunction are the two aspects of the Jaina dialectic, and the one is affirmed not by vanquishing the other but by assigning a secondary position to it as the nature of the dialectic demands. Hegel's philosophy does not reduce multiplicity to insignificance, and he has to accept the copresence of unity and multiplicity in reality. Such a view can be maintained only in the non-absolute way of the Jaina. If the Jaina dialectic is interpreted as disjunctive, it can also be interpreted as conjunctive by effecting a change of context. To call the Hegelian dialectic purely conjunctive is to introduce an inconsistency in the Hegelian philosophy itself. It will amount to absolute negation of difference and opposition-a position which Hegel does not seem to advocate. On the other hand regarding the element of conjunction in Hegelian system P.T. Raju and H.L. Haldar complain that Hegel has not been able to solve the contradiction of the lower. P.T. Raju observes: "In the dialectic so long as the opposites are there, the contradiction is not solved. But when the synthesis is attained the lower ones are merged in it and therefore
1. T.R.V. Murti: Central Philosophy of Buddhism, p. 128