Jain Journal 1966 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 39

OCTOBER, 1966
FROM LOGIC TO ONTOLOGY-Not satisfied with above, the Jainas have carried their analysis on the source of knowledge further giving rise to the doctrines of nayas and of saptabhangi. The former is the analytical process of ontological enquiry and the latter is the synthetical treatment of things in their versatility of aspects. These two together form, as it were, the very groundwork on which the whole structure of the Jaina metaphysics is safely and securely built up.
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NAYAVADA-As said above, naya is the analytical process of ontological investigation helping us to dive deep into the network of interrelated parts of the thing through the ordinary means of knowledge and select one or the other attribute for deeper interpretation and understanding. Thus a naya predicates one of the innumerable attributes of a thing without denying the rest. Where the rest are denied, it is no longer a naya but a nayābhāsa or a fallacy involved in the analytical reasoning. The analytical reasoning may either centre round a moumenon of a thing (dravyarthika) or round a phenomenon (paryayarthika). Put in another way, a naya, is the standpoint of the knower, and, in consequence, these will be as many as the knowers themselves, giving rise to a number of doctrines. Broadly, seven nayas are recognised
as follows:
1. Naigama when the knower takes the most general view of a thing, -this is the viewpoint of the Nyaya and the Vaiseşika schools.
2. Sangraha when the knower considers only the generic qualities, -this is the viewpoint of the Sankhya and the Advaita schools.
3. Vyavahara when the knower considers only the specific, not generic qualities, the viewpoint of the Carvākas and also of the modern Positivists and the Pragmatists.
4. Rjusutra when the knower looks straight into the thing as it is-the viewpoint of the Buddhists.
5. Sabda or terminological standpoint-the standpoint of Conventionalists, Grammarians and modern Empiricists.
6. Samabhirudha draws distinction between words of similar character, the standpoint of the sabda-badi philosophers in the East and of the objective-idealists in the West.