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 190

SYĀDVĀDA....
173
explicit by convention. If we believe in principle of one word for one meaning, the concept of inexpressible becomes easy to understand when we say 'a jar is inexpressible' an attempt is made to present the aspects of being and non-being in the jar at once and these concepts are not contradiction or absolutely independent but are relative and complementary.
Syādvāda emphasises that different features can be predicated of a given thing and such features are actualised either simultaneously or successively. “In contrast to the view of the modern logicians, the Jaina logicians seem to hold that although a given sentence may express the same proposition on different occasions, yet in spite of the fact it is the same proposition its truth-value changes with time. The propositions that are relevant in the context of Syādvāda are descriptive propositions. As sameness of a thing does not preclude it from underdoing change and taking on different features, similarly although it is the same proposition that is expressed on different occasions, this itself should not prohibit it from taking different truth-values”. 10 However, this theory of change of truth-value does not amount to the doctrine of relativity or scepticism. Because it is not that criterion of truth changes but only because features of a thing change.
It will be seen that the Jaina standpoint of nonabsolutism is essentially realistic as is revealed in the theory of Syādvāda. “In Nyāya-Vaiśeșika, etc., we often come across a tendency to view the same thing from different standpoints and thus, synthesize its various aspects but the utmost insistence that every aspect of everything must be viewed from every possible standpoint and the unflinching faith that the consummation of all thought processes lies only in a synthesis of all possible standpoints, are to be found nowhere except in the Jaina system of philosophy"."