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Knowledge can be acquired in two ways through doctrines of Pramana (source of or measure of valid cognition) and of Naya (view-points). For mundane living beings like us, doctrine of viewpoints that is unique to Jainism is useful in attaining complete knowledge about an entity. 22
Naya is defined as a special effort to acquire or impart knowledge; intention of the seeker of knowledge; expression of one out of many attributes of an entity without negating the existence of others. Jains say that there are as many types of Naya as the attributes and modes of a substance. Mundane living beings can acquire knowledge that is partial and relative to the seeker's intentions and level of knowledge. Nayas can be broadly classified in two ways which are further subdivided into seven types. The two primary types are:
Substance or transcendental or absolute viewpoint: It looks for identical or generic attributes of the objects of knowledge.
Mode or practical viewpoint: It looks for specific or differences (modes) of the objects of knowledge.
Doctrine of Anekant or Non-absolutism or Multiplicity of View points23 Anekantavada or the doctrine of non absolutism/ multiplicity of viewpoints is an extension of Naya doctrine of Jains and perhaps one of the most important ones in the arena of Indian Logic. It is based on the definition of Truth / reality i.e. reality is with origination-decay-permanence simultaneously implying that an entity is continuously changing and so is the knowledge about it. Since permanence is directly opposite of origination-decay; Anekanta says that the opposite attributes co-exist simultaneously. This is how the two types of Nayas i.e. substance and mode or transcendental and practical viewpoints make these aspects as their focus of acquisition of knowledge. Thus important feature of Anekanta is that our knowledge is relative (substance or mode viewpoint or their further sub divisions) to our own intentions or level of our knowledge.
Gandhi & Jainism
Pg.235
