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Epistemology of Jainas
The Nyāya also holds tattvajñāpa as the path to liberation while viparyaya as the cause of bondage. But in its later stages, it leaves the aim of liberation and deals mainly with logic, where ajñāna is not perverted knowledge, but absence of knowledge. Ajñāna as Absence of Knowledge
Now, we come to the problem of ignorance, in its literal sense, i. e. the absence of knowledge. The term knowledge, in the present context, has two denotations. Firstly, it means the power of knowing and secondly, it means the cognition or the application of that power. The question of the absence of knowledge will be discussed in both perspectives. We shall discuss why we cannot know an object, as well as wby we do not know an object. By absence also we can take partial as well as the total absence. Partial absence in other words is the problem of inequality in knowledge. The total absence is the problem of mind and matter which we have already discussed in the first chapter. We can analyse the problem in following questions :
1. Why does one class of entities possess the power of knowing while the other does not? In other words it is a question related with distinction between intelligent and nonintelligent beings.
2. Amongst intelligent beings also why there is a gradation of knowledge ?
3. If knowledge is a natural characteristic of the self why it is not permanent ?
These questions and such others are replied by different systems in their own way. According to the materialistic view of Cārvāka there is no difference between intelligent and nonintelligent beings. Regarding inequality or gradation of knowledge he depends upon the physical structure of mind. It can grasp more objects and penetrate deeper if the tissues are fine. Their roughness results into intellectual bluntness. Our mind is. affected by diet and other physical environment also. The third question does not arise in the case of Cārvāka as it rela
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