Jain Journal 2000 07

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

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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXV, No. 1 July 2000 which stands in irreconcilible opposition to pure logic."? By “pure logic” Prof. Jadunath Sinha, the celebrated historian of Indian philosophy, of course means traditional, formal logic.
This is a striking evidence of the truth of Frederick Engels's remarks on the relationship between science and philosophy. He wrote as far back as 1878 : ".....an acquaintance with the historical course of evolution of human thought, with the views on the general interconnections in the external world expressed at various times, is required by theoretical natural science for the additional reason that it furnishes a criterion of the theories propounded by this science itself. Here, however, lack of acquaintance with the history of philosophy is fairly frequently and glaringly displayed." He lamented the unhealthy separation between philosophers and scientists : "If theoreticians are semi-initiates in the sphere of natural science, then natural scientists today are actually just as much so in the sphere of theory, in the sphere of what hitherto was calle
8 Unfortuna separation persists even now.
One last point. We have tried to show how syāduāda helps us to conceive reality even at the sub-atomic level. Does it mean that Bhadrabāhu and other Indian philosophers already knew science has discovered only recently ? The answer is : No. The Jain thinkers had found that things have many facets, and what is true for one may not be true for the others. All, at least much, depends on the point of view. Hence they had boldly devised a new system of logic without knowing how useful it might turn out to be in distant future. As Haldane said, "It is foolish to pretend that ancient philosophers anticipated all modern intellectual developments. And I believe that we, today, can do more honour to their memories by thinking for ourselves, as they did, then by devoting our lives to commentaries on them. But if we do so it is our duty to point out that our own thought has run parallel to theirs. I was unaware of Bhadrabāhu's existence when I wrote the paper (on a logical analysis of learning, conditioning, and related processes). The fact that I reached a conclusion so like his own suggests that we may both have seen the same facet of manysplendoured truth."9
This provides the right perspective : learn from the past and apply that knowledge to the present.
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Jadunath Sinha, History of Indian Philosophy, Calcutta : Central Book Agency, 1952, Vol. 2, p. 181. Frederick Engels, Dialectics of Nature, Moscow : Progress Publishers, 1966, p. 43. Haldane, p. 199.
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