New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

SR No.: 007010
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 206
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 147

Universal Concomitance
139
was to be established by inference, there would obviously be a fallacy of mutual dependence (anyonyāśraya), because the proof of one would depend on the proof of other. There will be no end if an inference is verified by universal concomitance and again the former by the latter.
For the ascertainment of pervasion (universal concomitance, vyāpti) one stands in need of independent mental effort which could examine the relationship between the probandum and the probans on the basis of observation and non-observation. Such effort that is capable of determining the universal concomitance is designated as tarka or reasoning, which we have already discussed.
It is possible to draw a line of demarcation by means of tarka or reasoning between co-existences that are rooted in identity or are without it. Similarly reasoning is capable of distinguishing a series with its moments causally related from another whose moments are not so related.
The relation between fire and smoke is not that of mere succession, but it is an internal one of invariability. Fire is the agent that produces and smoke is the object that is produced and this is the internal invariability existing between them. Sunday is followed by Monday. This is a case of mere succession. Sunday does not produce Monday and, therefore, there is no producer-produced relationship or internal invariability between them. The imagination of causality on the basis of mere succession is indeed a perverse knowledge. Sensuous cognition is limited to the particulars and so is incapable of formulating a principle that is universally and invariably applicable. But it cannot be denied that the human mind has an independent function of its own, that does not simply analyse or synthesize the sensuous feelings and cognitions, but is capable of transcending the limits set by the senses. It is against commonsense experience that a thought cannot go beyond the empirical experience. Thought is certainly dependent on the sensible data, but it is not entirely bound by them, being free and independent in many other respects. It can exercise its freedom and determine universal laws true for all times. Apparently Sunday is invariably followed by Monday on account of the mere order of succession. The Jaina logicians postulated necessary relationship (avinābhāva) between them on account of that invariable succession. Monday necessarily follows Sunday, and this establishes the probans-probandum relationship between them. The asterisms of