________________
Omniscience: Misconception and Clarification
as it was for an old fashioned theology to discredit the nature of the worth of the body. Both have proved to be erroneous. Human thinking with regard to goodness, duty and morality, art and beauty, "extends without assignable limit the knowledge of mankind."2 The growth of human knowledge has been a sort of progressive limitation of sceptical and agnostic attitude. Thus the possibility of omniscience is also contained in the ideal of knowledge or ideal of science. Even in the ideal of epistemological certainty without which all our claims to knowledge must be suspects"3 suggests that the quest for certainty in knowledge is indeed a quest towards omniscience. In reasoning, context is not seen simultaneously with the meaning which has to be the object of reflection and analysis. Thus reason cannot make prime discoveries. The miracle of mind is well-known. What is needed is to unfold the gates of mind and extend the limitless horizon of knowledge.
1. Ladd, G. T.: Knowledge of Life.and Reality (Yale University, 1918), p. 97.
57
2. Ibid, pp. 98-99.
3. Ayer, A. J.: The Problen of Knowledge (London: Macmillan & Co., 1958), p. 41.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
