Book Title: Applied Philosophy of Anekanta
Author(s): Shashiprajna Samni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

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Page 137
________________ By the theory of Language Game Wittgenstein has given a powerful blow to the traditional view of essentialism. The Essentialists emphasize that every word has a fixed meaning. But, Wittgenstein shows that, meaning of every word is conventional, it might change from time to time according to the different context. For example, the word ‘saindhava' has two meanings 'horse' and 'salt'. But if a person is asked to bring saindhava, when a soldier is ready to go for war, and a particular person brings salt at that time or when ‘saindhava' is asked during lunch and a particular person brings the horse this is not contextual. The word vaitarņi is a name of river which is considered as sacred in the Hindu tradition, whereas in Jain tradition vaitarņi river is considered as the river which flows in hell. Thus the four-fold perspective of Jainism, can be compared with the Wittgensteinean view of form of life. In this regard, Wittgenstein speaks in tune with the Jain perspective of Syādvāda and parallaly to the perspective of Derridean Deconstruction. Thus he tries to establish a living languagerelated to the respective Forms of life. It is one of his most remarkable contribution in the field of Language Philosophy. . In sum and substance,it is clear that Wittgenstein view runs in parallel with the Jain view. Like the manifold, indeterminate and relative reality, its knowledge as well as verbal expression is also manifold, indeterminate and relative. It is for our practical purpose only, that we fix the meaning of a particular word or a sentence according to the context, the intention to the speaker, the general purpose and so on. However, meaning is as in-exhaustive as Reality itself.? 'Mahāprajña, Ācārya. Jiva-Ajīva. Ed. Muni Sumermal & Jethmal Bhansal. Ladnun: Jain Vishva Bharati, 1995, p. 34. 2 Anekantavad & Syādvāda. Ed. Srichand Rampuria. Ladnun: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, 1996, p. 268. 114

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