ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 248

INTERNATION
SCHOOL
OF
परमे
17 Present Philosophical Tendencies, p. 311.
SELF STUDY IS THE SUPREME AUSTERITY,
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(d) Pragmatic View of Realism
Pragmatism means, in the broadest sense, the acceptance of the categories of life as fundamental. By life, pragmatism means, not the imaginary or ideal life of any hypothetical being, not the eternal life or the absolute life but the temporal, operative life of animals and men, the life of instinct and desire, of adoption and environment, of civilization and progress. The whole "experimentalist" tendency in English, Science and Philosophy may be said to have anticipated the pragmatic theory that truth is achieved by the trying of hypotheses. The tendency of pragmatic Realism is mainly directed against Absolutism.
(e) Theory of Immanence
The neo-Realist suggests by their theory of Immanence that things and minds are not to be regarded as two independent realities but rather as "relations" into which knowledge as a fact must necessarily enter. Perry observed; "Instead of conceiving of Reality as divided absolutely between two impenetrable spheres, we may conceive it as a field of interpenetrating relationships,"
(f) Theory of Independence
According to the Theory of Independence, things being independent of one another, the relations which exist among things are also external and real, and not subjective and internal. Just as things are outside of mind, so is the relation. This view is quite similar to the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika conception of the external existence of relations.
(g) Theory of Critical Realism
According to Theory of Critical Realism the things have their independent existence and are not known in their entirety but only in their partial character. Our knowledge of things is determined by our interest, which selects certain qualities of things in preference to the rest. Things are not entirely unaffected by our experience, as the Neo Realists hold.
(h) Selective and Generative Realism
The Generative hypothesis holds that the existence of data is physiologically conditioned. The sense-datum is the effect of two joint causes viz., the physical object and the senseorgan. Thus a color is actually produced by the interaction of the physical object and the
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