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THE TRUTH
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is the case with the statements of false witnesses in courts; but there is never a real contradiction to be found in the statement of the Tirthamkara who is the Teacher Divine. Those who are led to discard His teaching on the appearance of contradiction deprive themselves of the truth, and will be forced to pin their faith on onesided absolutisms which might be very very dangerous. The man who insists on regarding strychnine, for instance, as absolutely not poison may very soon have occasion to pay for his folly with his life.
The theory of contradiction will admit of being given in the form of a diagram. It is quite simple in its nature.
Human speech purports to say something about a thing. There are three kinds of statements we can make about a thing, from the standpoint of contradiction.
S is P. S is not P.
S is at once both P and not P.
By combining these in different ways we get four more forms of the contradictory statement. These are:
S is P+S is not P. S is P+S is at once P and not P both. S is not P+S is at once both P and not P. S is P+S is not P+S is at once both P and not
P.
These seven forms, taken together, constitute what is known as the sapta-bhangi (sevenfold) system of
F. 2
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