Jaina Epistemology

SR No.: 006738
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1990
Total Pages: 516
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

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Epistemology of Jainas
they differ in time only. Pure consciousness appears at the first moment and the other in fater stages. According to Jainism both of them exist in one eternal, but changeable reaJity and both are equally real. The objects and content of Knowledge
The above discussion leads us to another controversial point of great significance. There are two kinds of verbs : transitive and intransitive. To know is a transitive verb just like to cook' or 'to illumine'. A transitive verb must have some object to operate upon. Cooking is not possible unless there is some meterial to be cooked. An illumination is not possible unless there is something to be illumined. The object also is one of the means that helps in operation of a transitive verb.
The Mimāṁsā system follows a quite realistic attitude in this respect and admits the object, not only a means of knowledge, but also holds that knowledge operates on the object and generates in it a quality of manifestedness (prakatya), just like in the act of cooking the quality of moisture (vikleda) is produced in rice or grain. Other non-Jaina systems also do not find any difficulty as they admit object also as one of the means of knowledge in one or other way.
The Jaina explanation to this problem is this, that knowledge must have something as its object. But, it is not the same as the physical object. We may call the object of knowledge as its content, inorder to distinguish it from the material object. The jar which qualifies the cognition of jar (ghatajñāna) is not the same as the material jar. The cognition of jar (ghata jñāna) is a mental phenomenon, while the external jar a physical. The difference between mental and physical worlds is clear in other cases also. The physical approach to an object is quite different from the mental approach. The mental approach does not possess the external object as its destination, while the physical approach does. The destination of mental approach is the mental image. The same is