Jaganmohanlal Pandita Sadhuwad Granth

Author(s): Sudarshanlal Jain
Publisher: Jaganmohanlal Shastri Sadhuwad Samiti Jabalpur

Page 195

४६ पं० जगन्मोहनलाल शास्त्री साधुवाद ग्रन्ख
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of the excluded middle, the placing of an entity or person into one category to the exclusion of all others. This methodology, as a student of Western philosophy knows, goes back at least to the Greek philosoper Aristotle. Thus it has been a part of the Western tradition for centuries,
Thinking dualistically is the basis of the two-value Western logical system (PP). It is at the root of our language structure, the subject/predicate object-type sentence. The process of categorization is grounded in it, for we place an entity into one category to the exclusion of any other. One value of dualistic thinking is that, put loosely, it provides us a ready way to get a handle on the world. That is to say, it facilitates a utilitarian attitude toward nature, since any entity which exists can be put into one category or another, or can be analyzed or interacted with in terms of projected categories.
It should be emphasized again that there is a connection between thinking dualistically and the method categorization. In dealing with reality, and this goes back to Aristotle the scientist, we set up categories and then locate all entities we experience into a category. That object is in the category of tree, this a horse, that a person, this a male person. And again, neatly categorizing or compartmentalizing the world makes it easier to handle.
There is another important aspects of dualistic and dialectical thinking, namely, the icea of opposition. We describe one end of the room as being the opposite of the other, and similarly with the floor and ceiling. When we extend this way of thinking to the human realm, we find ourselves thinking of one person as a friend in contrast to another as an enemy. We see, then, a process of extension going from different, to opposite, to enemy.
We notice in this last statement another factor which has been brought in, namely, distinction. Dualistic, dialectical thinking is grounded in or involves the process of making distinctions or separating into categories on the basis of differences. A horse is not like a blade of grass; that is why they are designated differently. A horse and blade of grass are different from a person; thus a third term is employed to indicate a further distinction or difference. One might call this the method of particularization or individuation also, inasmuch as every existent is placed in a particular category.
To sum up what has been said thus far, Western thinking, beginning with Greeks such as Aristotle, has been dualistic and dialectical. It has incorporated the principles of exclusion and opposition. It has involved the processes of differentiation, categorization, particularization and opposition. Interestingly, the epistemological process described is one in which the viewer or knower is assumed to be separate and different from the known. Thus we have the basic subject object, perceiver-perceived, or knower-known dualism. Among other things, this separation of knower and known reinforces the utilitarian attitude toward that which is known, since we are much less prone to exploit or use for our own ends the known, if it is different from rather than similar to us.