Book Title: Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture
Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
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170 Anekāntavāda and Syādväda
inexpressibility-exhaust all possible elemental46 predicates of a real, the conclusion would naturally follow that there are exactly seven, neither more nor less, predicates which can characterize a real in respect of the pair constiting of the characteristics of existence and non-existence. It should, however, be clearly understood in this connection that the seven predicates considered above merely exemplify the patterns which would be followed also by other heptads of predicates constituted by pairs of characteristics like permanance and impermanence, oneness and maniness, and so on. We should also here note that 'expressibility' cannot be regarded as an additional predicate, because the very act of affirmation or negation of a predicate implies it. 'Expressibility together with its opposite 'inexpressibility can, however, give rise to another heptad of predicates after the pattern illustrated by 'existence and non-existence'.
To come to the main problem, let us see whether the triad-e.g. existence, non-existence and inexpressibility-exhausts all possible elemental predicates of a real. And for this purpose let us analyse the nature of our cognition.
Our simplest cognition or judgment exhibits two factors, viz., subject and a predicate, that is, a substantive and an adjective qualifying it. The substantive is the determinandum and the adjective is the determinans.47 Thus the judgment “This is jar' may be rendered as “a pariticular real manifests the character (indicated by the adjectival import of the word) jar'.48 Akalanka, in his
46. By 'elemental' we mean 'unitary'. The fourth predicate which is a 'complex' is also
considered 'unitary' because it stands for the synthetic unity of the real. 47. These terms are borrowed from W.E. Johnson who defines them as follows : 'We
find that in every proposition we are determining in thought the character of an object presented to thought to be thus determined. In the most fundamental sense, then, we may speak of a determinandum and determinans : the determinandum is defined as what is presented to be determined or characterised by thought or cognition; the determinans as what does characterise or determine in thought that which is given to be determined. We shall regard the substantive (used in its widest granmatical sense) as the determinandum, and the adjective as the
determinans."'--Logic part I, (Cambridge, 1921), p. 9. 48. I am indebted to W.E. Johnson for this rendering of the judgment. The passage which
has suggested the rendering is as follows : "The exclamatory judgment Lightning' may thus be rendered formally complete by taking as subject term 'a manifestation of reality. Here I do not propose to take simply as the equivalent of the exclamatory judgment Reality is being manifested in the lightning', but rather 'A particular portion of reality manifests the character indicated by the adjectival import of the word) lightning'.-Logic, Part 1, p. 19.
