Facets of Jain Philosophy Religion and Culture

Author(s): Shreechand Rampuriya, Ashwini Kumar, T M Dak, Anil Dutt Mishra
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 95

78 Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda
two characteristics--'is' and 'is not'-are not capable of being expressed by one word at a time. The co-existence of these two predicables is sought to be implied by the phrase 'inexpressible' (avācya) by some others. But according to the Jains, the word 'inexpressible', used as a predicate, asserts a real characteristic of a real subject and the possibility of such predication means that a real is not entirely incapable of being described. So the predicate ‘inexpressible' cannot be taken in its literal absolute sense. 'In some respect, a real is inexpressible' is the correct proposition.
The Jains assert that concepts and conceptual thoughts are not in opposition. It is exceedingly difficult to understand why the concepts should not be of service in the emergence of perceptual intuition. The Jains maintain that perceptual judgments are founded upon reality. Parity of reasoning requires that consciousness, with the aid of sense-organs and concepts, can give us the full knowledge of Reality as it is. The Jains do not regard the concepts as antagonistic to Reality. The concepts are as much the means, as the sense-organs and consciousness are, of gaining an insight into the nature of Reality. Thus, a real is not a particular alone, but particular-cum-universal, the universal as embodied in the particular. The real is, thus, amenable to verbal communication and to judgment alike.
Problem of Relation In the previous sub-section, the problem of relation was discussed briefly. We shall now see how the reality of relation between substance and its qualities and modes, has always been an irritating problem in metaphysics, and has been thoroughly discussed by all the schools of Indian philosophy. It has also received serious attention of all Western philosophers too, since the time of Aristotle.
The reality of relation between substance and qualities is a fundamental concept for the Jains, and it is 'relation' which introduces order and coherence into the world. But the reality of relation has been denied by the Fluxists and the Vedantists in the Orient. In Western mataphysics, Kant and Bradley condemned 'the thing with its qualities' as self-contradictory. But such a conclusion goes clean against not only commonsense but against science. It is remarkable that the arguments of Kant and Bradley were anticipated by the ancient Indian philosophies several centuries ago. The Buddhist Fluxists' position has been summed up by Bradley in these forceful words :..............a relational way of thought........must give appearance