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IS KNOWLEDGE ABSOLUTE ? II. Is Knowledge Absolute ?
Since absoluteness is unknown to Jaina Metaphysics, so it is in its epistemology. The Jaina division of knowledge into immediate and mediate is not only free from the fallacy of overlapping division, but it is also based on common experience and supports the initial non-absolutism.
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However, the professed non-absolutism becomes more explicit, when knowledge is classified into Pramāņa (knowledge of a thing as it is in itself) and Nyaya (knowledge of a thing in its relation). Pramana is Complete knowledge (Sakladeśa) and Naya is Incomplete Knowledge (Vikladeśa). The controversies between the two traditions of Jainism, Agamic and the Logical, regarding the classification of knowledge have been discussed very ably by Sukhlālji. 8
For clarification, it may be said that the terms "immediacy" and "mediacy" are used here in sense different from that in which they are commonly taken. Jainas deny the immediate the character of the ordinary perceptual knowledge as the western Representationalists also do, but unlike the Realists they hold that "knowledge is direct or indirect according as it is born without or with the help of an external instrument different from the self."9
However, to avoid sophistication also to bring their theory in line with others, a distinction is made between the really immediate and the relatively immediate. 10 The latter is
6 Umasvāmi, T. Sut., I. 11-12; Manikynandi, Parikṣa-Mukham, II. 1; Hemacandra, Pramana-Mimamsa, I. 1.9; Dharmabhusana, Nyayadi pikā, p. 23.
7 Vide Dr. Rajendra Prasad's article "A Critical Study of Jaina Epistemology", Jaina Antiquary, Vol. XV., No. 2, Jan., 1949, pp. 65-67. 8 Sukhalal Sanghavi, Advanced Studies in Indian Logic and Metaphysics Section VIII, pp. 50-54.
9 N. M. Tatia, Studies in Jaina Philosophy, p. 28.
10 See Hemacandra, Pramana-Mimämsä, I. 1.15; Ananta Vicya, Prameya -Ratna-Māla, p. 14; Vadideva Suri, Pramana-Naya-Tattvalokalankara with Ratnakarävatārikā commentary by Ratnaprabhācārya (Kasi, Vira Samvat, 2437), II. 45.
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