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CHAPTER XI
SYADVĀDA (The Conditional Dialectic)
or SAPTABHANGI (The Theory of Sevenfold Predication)
In the course of our treatment of nayavāda or the theory of standpoints, it has already been observed that syādvāda is a method which is complementary to that of nayavāda, and that while nayavāda is analytical in character, syādvāda functions as a synthetical method. That is, nayavāda analyses one of the standpoints under the aspect of identity (dravyārthikanaya) or of difference (paryāyārthikanaya); and syādvāda further investigates the various strands of the truth delivered by a naya, and integrates them into a consistent and comprehensive synthesis. Each such strand is called a bhanga which is referred to, variously, as a mode, or a predication or an alternative or a possible truth. Describing the relation between the two methods Dasgupta observes: “There is no universal or absolute position or negation, and all judgments are valid only conditionally. The relation of the naya doctrine with the syādvāda doctrine is therefore this, that for any judgment according to any and every naya there are as many alternatives as are indicated by Syādvāda." The indeterminate or anekānta reality is
1. Supra, p. 303 ff. 2. HIP, Vol. I, p. 181.
