Applied Philosophy of Anekanta

SR No.: 006966
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shashiprajna Samni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
Publication Year: 2012
Total Pages: 220
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 149

cruel. The two words are rolled in one. One is revolving around the center of the word and other remains in the margin. . Rejecting this Structuralist view, Jacque Derrida says that a word includes its other within its meaning. He refers to Plato's use of the word pharmokon, which means medicine as well as poison. Thus the word contains opposites as its meaning. This idea of Derrida applies in general in his theory of words and meanings. One can say that the sentence, ghata asti nāsti ca, reflects this idea, if taken in terms of philosophy of language. The point I want to make is that today's cultural problem of the “other” can be seen in this light. Infact the other or others are not that “other” sealed off against each other. Anekāntavāda, then, said this long long ago before Derrida. Western thought, says Derrida, has always been structured in terms of dichotomies or polarities ;good vs.evil, being vs. nothingness, truth vs. error, identity vs. difference, mind vs. matter, presence vs. absence.... The second term in each pair is considered as ...opposed in their meanings ,but are arranged in the hierarchical order which gives the first term priority, in both the temporal and the qualitative sense of the word.? Bad and good , men and women both are complementary (one that complete the other), not antonyms. "The same view is accepted in Jainism, no Reality is self-complete by itself, it achieves its completeness because of 'the other’. The moment one privileges one attribute, falls in fallacy. It falls in the category of pseudonaya(durnaya) as per jain view, on account of its being absolutistic in character. Without lie, you can't say truth, in
Jacques Derrida. Dissemination. op.cit., p. 103. 2 Jacques Derrida.Dissemination. Trans. With an Introduction and Additional
Notes by Barbara Johnson. London: Continuum, 2005, Intro-viii. 3 Ācārya Mahāprajña. Anekānta Hein Tisra Netra.Ladnun: Jain Vishva
Bharati, 1982, p. 4. * Ācārya Mahāprajña. New Dimensions In Jaina Logic. Ladnun: Jain Vishva Bharati, 1984, p. 63.
126