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SYĀDVĀDA
· The significant fact about knowledge is its communicability. When knowledge is for one's own self, the question of communicability can be dispensed with; but when it is for the other, the question needs serious consideration. Communicability is accomplished through properly worded propositions. Thus knowledge to be communicable is to be reduced to propositions. This goes without saying that formulation of propositions is dependent on the content of knowledge. It is not idle to point out that if there is discordance between the content of knowledge and formulation of propositions, serious misunderstandings are bound to arise. Syādvāda is the linguistic device to represent without any omission and distortion the content of knowledge. Thus in a way Syādvāda and knowledge become the obverse and the converse of the same coin.
Knowledge, according to the Jaina, reveals itself and the object. In consequence the Jaina thinkers propound that the object has infinite characteristics some known, some in the process of being discovered and many as yet unknown. This is known as the doctrine of Anekāntavāda. Syādvāda is the method of communicating the manifold characteristics of a thing to the other. In the absence of this technique real knowledge of a thing can not be passed to others without any discongruence. Thus Syādvāda is the expression of Anekāntavāda in language. If Anekāntavāda is the mode of cognition, Syādvāda is the mode of expression.
The significant point to be comprehended in regard to Anekāntavāda is that every characteristic of a multiphased thing is maintaining its identity through the existence of its opposite
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