Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

SR No.: 002012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Religion, & Nyay
File Size: 23 MB

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Syadvada and Relativity 369 ask whether there is any higher truth pointing to one which particularises itself in the objects of the world, connected with one another vitally, essentially and immanently, it throws overboards its own logic and exalts a relative truth into an absolute one." It seems to some that Syadvada is an easy compromise which does not overcome the contradictions inherent in the opposed standpoints in a higher synthesis. It takes care to show that the truths of science of every-day-experience are relative and one-sided; but it leaves us in the end with the view that truth is a sum total of relative truths. A mere putting together of half-truths definite-indefinite cannot give us the whole truth.
Answering the charges,it should be pointed out that Syadvāda is (to use Warren's words) 'the method of knowing or speaking of a thing synthetically'. Syadvada itself is not truth but is a guide that helps us to reach the highest truth. By the aid of this doctrine, we can reconcile the contradictions that arise in ordinary experience. Besides relative truth, Jainism recognises Absolute what it terms Kevaljñāna by possession of which one would know truth27 or have the perfect knowledge of all the objects in their entirety. Perhaps we may say the former is empirical truth (vyāvahārika-satya); while that latter is transcendental truth (päramärthikasatya). In empirical realm, what we can have at the most is only relative truths from various view-points, as truth possesses numberless aspects (Anantadharmatmakameva tattvam); and there is no contradiction in the synthesis of contradictory concepts, viz., sattva, asattva and akartavya of one and the same subject as the opposites (i.e. different predicates) refer to different aspects of the same subject (upädhibheda). When we cannot have the Absolute Eternal Truth, these relative truths have significance.
We meet 'asti-năsti (is, is not) in Albert Einstein's Relativity Theory also. We shall take the weight of an object for instance. We say ordinarily that a certain object weighs 154 Ibs., but relativity doctrine would point out it 'is' and 'is not' so. An object which weighs 154 Ibs. at the equator would weigh 155 Ibs. at north or south pole. This is due to difference of distance. Still more change of weight would be found when the velocity and position are taken into consideration. We may refer here to the famous illustration of the
26. Dr. S. R.: 'Indian Philosophy', Vol. I pp. 305-6.
27. Einstein too recognises this. Eddington says, We must look for absolute things which are then in the world, but things presented are mostly relative at their first sight.