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Epistemology of Jainas
consciousness also on the same ground cannot be included in the four elements and must stand as a separate entity. If the elements are mutually included, the doctrine of four elements becomes baseless.
The subtle element admitted as the material cause of consciousness, therefore, must be different from the unconscious elements and at the same time continued in all the conscious activities. Such an element is nothing but the soul, which is free from the material qualities of colour, taste etc.; is the object of self-cognition as well as inference.
Other Schools of Materialism
We have discussed above the theory of Cārvāka holding physical elements as the cause of consciousness. There are some other notions also associated with the system. They show a gradual development in conception of the self.
(1) There is a view that consciousness is produced by the physical body. Vidyānanda refutes it on the following ground : If physical body is the only cause of consciousness, why the latter is not found in a dead body. If it is said that the dead body lacks in the element of air, it is an acceptance of some thing other than the body as the cause of consciousness. Moreover, what is the cause of consciousness, body as a whole or its parts? In the first case there should be no consciousness in a person whose hand or leg is cut oil. In the case of parts there should be a plurality of consciousness in one body without any controlling factor.
Further, we see that the body is always changing. It undergoes an absolute change when a child becomes an old man. But we remember the experiences of boyhood in old age also. It implies that there must be some permanent factor continued in all the stages; which does not change with the body; and serves as a link in different stages. That factor is soul.
(2) Another school identifies the self with the senses. It is
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