Jain Journal 2013 07

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

Page 47

Book Review Dr. Anupam Jash
Some Problems in Jain Psychology, by T. G. Kalghatgi, Dharwar : Karnatak University Research Series, 1961, pp. XI+IV+187.
A study of Jainism in terms of western thought is much needed today. In this age of ‘analysis'it is necessary to re-assess the place of a synthetic approach to the fundamental problems of philosophy and psychology
Jainism, one of the world's oldest religions, and psychology, one of the newest humanistic, are both dedicated to the rigorous pursuit of human understanding. Both disciplines engage scholars whose primary goal is the pursuit of the deepest possible knowledge of the human capacity for growth, self-knowledge, and the transformation of human behavior and functioning. Jainism shares with psychology an almost infinite faith in the inherent possibilities within human beings to transcend historical and immediate experience in order to fully actualize human potential. Both disciplines are ultimately profoundly optimistic about the universal human capacity to move beyond suffering, to live productive and humane lives, and to establish communities where people can live in peaceful cooperation. Moreover, psychology and Jainism both espouse a rigorous humanistic epistemology rooted in the ideal of empowerment through the exercise of reason, intentional, and learning about the human condition through a scrupulous empiricism.
The present book sets out to fill this gap by offering concise presentation of Jaina psychology in terms of modern western psychology. This valuable book authored by Dr. T. G. Kalghatgi aim to present various problems of Jaina psychology with reference to ancient Indian and Western thought including Western psychological thought, specially of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This book contains eighth different chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter of the book discusses the problem of the soul in