First Steps to Jainism Part 2

SR No.: 001641
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 172
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Education
File Size: 11 MB

Page 135

The Indian-Jaina Dialectic of Syädvå da 121
we propose to call its system or context or universe of discourse, which demarcates it from others.” (JPN, p. 114.)
"It is idle to raise questions of chronological status as to whether the unity is prior to the elements or the elements are prior to the unity. In the concrete real at any rate they are coordinate, This unity of being and non-being, or rather of self-being and negation of other-being, is beyond the reach of logical concepts, and hence, of linguistic symbols, which are but the vehicles of such concepts. The Jaina in recognition of this inalienable character of reals declares them to be inexpressible. The inexpressible may be called indefinite from the standpoint of formal logic. But this is not the whole character of a real. It is also expressible and logically definable as existent as non-existent.1" (JPN, p. 115.)
"The Jaina conception of relation may be summed up as follows. Relations are objective verities which are as much given to intuition and to thought as the terms are. A relation has no objec tive status outside the terms. It is the result of an internal change in the nature of the terms. It is sui generis in that it cannot be placed under the head of identity or of difference, both of which are contained as traits in its being.” (JPN, p. 211.)
5.2. The Jaina view of relatedness of the things is very naturally extended to the discussion of causality.
"... neither synchronism nor succession is believed by the Jaina to be the essential characteristic of causal relation. Causality is a relation of determination. The effect is that whose coming into being is necessarily determined by the being of another. The determinant is called the cause and the determinatum is called the effect. The determinant may be synchronous with the determined or may be separated by an interval...." (JPN, p. 212.)
"What is the organ of the knowledge of causality ? The Jaina answers that it is perception of the concomitance in agreement and
1 The Jaina view insists on the inadequacy of formal logic by
introducing the concept of indefiniteness or indetermination or uncertainty as an inalienable character of reals; but also emphasizes the possibility of defining reals in terms of existent or
non-existent taken together.