Jain Spirit 2002 06 No 11

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 57

The Relatives of Relativity
not separation, and although it might be said that I have denied bravery would more probably leave them laughing at my the view of the absolutist as absolutely true, I have also cowardliness, although the symbols used were common to accepted their view as partially true. Whichever way one us both. Just because a word is understood, it does not mean chooses to look at it, the practical result - if I am truly living by that there is an overlap of the experience of what that word the implications of anekantvada - is that even the absolutist is represents. If this situation can occur with such concrete embraced, his views respected and accepted as valid. On the entities as dogs then what of such abstractions as 'love' or part of the Jain, there does not exist the division that is caused "god"? The term syat or 'in some respects' is of particular by thinking another's view to be wrong, as the apparent contra- interest as Korzybski advocated the use of similar terms to diction is seen as the natural result of relativity and nothing replace the use of the verb 'to be'. He writes: "Any more.
proposition containing the word 'is' creates a linguistic In the Agama texts, Mahavir explains that any entity can be structural confusion which will eventually give birth to expressed in many different ways in accordance to its location, serious fallacies." Instead he suggested the use of it seems time and mode but it was not until a later date that this idea was to me' or 'from my point of view', 'I feel', 'I believe' or 'it formulated into a system that is often referred to as syadvada appears' so as to communicate the relativity of any meaning 'statements in some respect' (vada meaning statement and avoid the errors caused by the use of 'statement' and syat meaning 'in some respect'). Some two absolutes. thousand years later on the other side of the world, Science and By about the fourth century the Jains had developed the Sanity was published by one Alfred Korzybski, who dealt with idea of syadvada into a sevenfold system of logic known as many of the issues of syadvada. Although much of it has a very sapta-bhangi-naya or 'sevenfold predication', which was close affinity with Jain thought, it appears to have arisen referred to during philosophical discussion so as to establish independently from it and makes no
the viewpoint that the speaker had mention of any such sources as the basis
chosen to adopt at any one time. The for its ideas. Its main focus is the "Any absolute is a seven statements are formulated from limitations imposed upon us by language
the permutations of three and, in particular, the habitual language
fundamental postulates - affirmation, structures that lead to fallacies in both
negation and inexpressibility. They thought and communication. Korzybski
are as follows: was the founder of General Semantics, a system that sought to rectify these errors through the adoption 1) syad-asti
in some respects it is of, and adherence to, a language that more closely correlates 2) syad-nasti
in some respects it is not with the real world.
3) syad-asti-nasti in some respects it is and it is not 'The map is not the territory' was one of the phrases he 4) syad-avaktavya in some respects it is inexpressible often used to communicate the fundamental principle of 5) syad-asti avaktava in some respects it is and is inexpressible General Semantics and it represents for me a simple yet 6) syad-nasti avaktavya in some respects it is not and is inexpressible profound realisation. Too often we take the symbol and what 7) syad-asti-nasti avaktavya in some respects it is and is not and is inexpressible the symbol represents to be one and the same thing, leading us to the belief that symbols are in some way Real when in fact When I first came upon this sevenfold system of logic, I they only represent that which is Real. The letters d-o-g have recognised many similarities with the views propounded by absolutely no relation to a small furry animal save that which a the world of modern physics and in particular the work of small group of us have given to them. If these letters possessed Albert Einstein whose Theory Of Relativity revolutionised an inherent quality of their own then surely there would be the scientific method in general. The apparent conflict of some special relationship between a dog and a god that no other how something can be' and 'not be' has perhaps found its thing would share. Although I personally would assert that clearest example in the dilemma faced by physicists when dogs are in many ways godly, I think we can see that this has attempting to describe the most elementary quanta of our nothing to do with the letters that make up the words. Another universe. At times these minute entities appear to behave as group of people has chosen the letters p-e-r-r-o to represent the particles whilst at other times they seem to be more like same thing and yet another, c-h-i-e-n, and all of this is confined waves. As a result, in a brave attempt to transcend the to one alphabet when there are in fact hundreds. Having first contradiction that they present us with, they are often recognised the distinction between the symbol and that which it referred to as wavicles. The fundamental difference is that represents, we must then consider the gulfs that separate each a particle 'is' in the sense that it exists as a measurable piece person's experience of the thing in question. If I were to of manifest matter whereas a wave 'is not' due to its being recount an incident of a savage attack by a dog to someone who nothing more than an immaterial pattern of energy which is had only ever seen a chihuahua in their whole lives, then the neither solidly manifest nor accurately measurable. In the effect of my tale, instead of communicating my courage and quantum realm all we know to be solid and tangible is
belief that has not yet been transcended." ;
June - August 2002. Jain Spirit
55
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