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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
When a logical positivist says that "there is no metaphysics and reality may come through the back-door, Like “Hydra they raise their heads over and over again, not to be destroyed afresh, but to conquer a new.”]
In the conclusion we may say that the unconditionality in the statement, 'All statements are conditional', is quite different from the normal conditionality. This is how and why?
(5) Senses, Reason and Faith - There are primarily two sources to understand the world — senses and reason. Closely connected and corresponding to them there are two grades of Reality - existence and essence ( as the existentialists will say ) or existence and reality ( as the Hegelians will say ). Existence is actuality, or actual verification. This is unconditional, absolute and categorical. There is no alternation or condition, being monistic and unilaternal in attitude. But there is another thing thought. Thought is rational thought or simply reason. Thought gives us essences either by a sort of reflection or by the way of hypothesis and then interprets the world in terms of these essences. However, this interpretation is not verification. There may be alternative essences or hypothesis in terms of each, which the world can be interpreted. Thought therefore is not concerned with existence, but with essences, and there is always the possibility of alternative essences or hypothesis. This is exactly what we mean, when we say that "everything is conditional. To thought or reason thus, everything is conditional or alternative.
But we cannot live in the world of thought alone; we cannot forget existence. But this attitude to existence must be other than thought or reason and what is other than thought or reason must be unreason or irrationality. This irratio
1. Gadkar, ( Mrs ) V. Gajendra : Logical Positivism vs
Metaphysics, Proc. of Indian Philosophical Congress (Mysore), p. 183.
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