Nyaya And Jaina Epistemology

SR No.: 023167
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kokila H Shah
Publisher: Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 186

SYADVĀDA....
169
Buddhist doctrine of Apoha rightly points out the negative aspect in the significance of the word. Of course, they were wrong in putting exclusive emphasis upon it; denying positive significance altogether. The Jainas rightly point out that both affirmation and negation are real and supplement each other.
The significance of this second predication consists in realizing that "non-existence is the obverse of the existent side of the object"." It means, e. g. jar does not exist as cloth or anything else and not that jar does not exist as the jar. Negation is implied in affirmation but is not to be identified with it.
According to Prof. Mukherjee, the first two predications are logically necessary to rebut such a conception of absolute existence and absolute nonexistence."
3. Syād asti nāsti : 'In some respects, everything is existent; in some respects, it is non-existent.' This predication consists in making affirmative and negative statements made one after the other, e. g. the jar is and is not. The ground for this kind of judgement is that a thing exists with reference to its own substance, place etc. and does not exist with reference to the substance, place etc. of other things. This apparently absurd statement reveals genuine logic. This predication is not a mere aggregate of the first two but is a synthesis of them. Though analytically it is constituted of the first and the second forms of predication, it expresses a new aspect of the object. There is no ambiguity or uncertainty or contradiction about this mode of predication. It is not merely a subjective view but has a counterpart in the objective reality. Thus, this predication though conjunction of the first two is not