Jinamanjari 1999 04 No 19

SR No.: 524019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 88
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, Canada_Jinamanjari, & Canada
File Size: 5 MB

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Wherever there is smoke there is fire (is it really true?) as in kitchen tatha there is fire on the hill (the assertions now hypothesis)
The purpose of this syllogism is to reduce the level of doubt. The past experience of the fire in a kitchen is used to infer a current unknown event. The initial assertion is rationalized by the connective tathat, which means 'based on the previous facts it follows.' It is obvious that without such a formal secular syllogism for arriving at a valid inference it would be impossible to coexist, communicate and develop democratic institutions including science.
The Greek syllogism attributed to Aristotle relies on a nearabsolute knowledge that 'all humans are mortals. Since 'Socrates is a human,' tathat 'Socrates is mortal.' A fact that is not often appreciated; and at least not overtly recognized by Greek syllogism is the acknowledgment of the liabilities intrinsic in the inference. i.e. inference is as good as the knowledge on which it is based. Similarly the possibility that there could be smoke without a fire is left open in Nyāya. And therefore it becomes the basis for the principle of syādvāda.
Syādvāda is not a figure of speech as meant in the common usage of the word 'perhaps.' nor it is a rhetorical devise. Similarly, the doubt intrinsic in the inference does not come from unverified knowledge, as:
- it cannot be entertained the possibility that what appears to be smoke could be a rain cloud or a dust storm;
- Contradictions where true or false coexist cannot be considered;
- Not concerned with what is ‘unknowable, or “cannot be fathomed.'
Such themes are dealt by mystics who might even surmise that “knowing nothing is the reason to doubt that one knows everything.' Similarly, syād does not arise from the momentary, probabilistic or average character of what 'it is,' or nor does it relate to fuzzy-logic. In order to identify the logical basis for the origin of doubt, formalisms to express doubt as uncertainty with statistical significance have been developed. Such approaches are of course useless for reconstructing reality from a set of events. Therefore syād is the deterministic statement about the doubt intrinsic in an inference based on two (or more) events. It represents the kind of doubt that is always present in any scientific statement and it is necessary for further inquiry to reduce the level of
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