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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
other words, logical postulates to be allowed to state explicitly in language all that is implicitly contained in thought." The Pragmatists also complain against 'Formal Logic' for its neglect of the 'context'2. Even Mathematical Logicians, according to whom, there is "no essential connection between connotation and denotation" admit the conception of a Universe of Discourse in the sense of a given context, or range of significance'.4
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The Four-cornered Negation and Contradiction The fourcornered negation of the Madhyamika Buddhists throws light on the problem. According to them, Reality is not (neither B, nor not B nor both B and not B, nor neither B and not B). Now, if Reality is, neither being nor non-being can be negated. But, the Madhyamikas hold that though the Reality is not Being or Non-being it can not be different from them. Thus even the neither... ...nor (i. e. neither Being nor nonBeing) has to be negated, and consequently there has to be a double negation.
This looks like violating the Law of Contradiction, for the denial of the contradictories suggests the possibility of a position in between the two contradictories. Professor Raju5, however, suggests a technical device for the relief of the Buddhists to meet this charge of the possible violation of the Law of Contradiction. In the doctrine of four-cornered negation if we distinguish between contrary and contradictory opposition in the manner of western logic, we will see that two contraries can be negated but not the two contradictories.
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1. Hamilton, 'Lectures', Vol. III, p. 114.
2. See F. C. S. Schiller's 'Logic For Use', Chapter on 'Formal Theories of Judgement' and 'Meaning', Also See John Dewey's 'Logic', p. 192.
3. Stebbing, L. S.: 'An Introduction to Modern Logic', p. 55. 4. Ibid, p. 56.
5. Raju, P. T.: The Four-cornered Negation, 'The Review of Metaphysics', Vol. VII, No. 4, June 1954.
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