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Non-absolutistic Heritage of Bhagavāna Mahavira
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fundamental assumption of relativity is realistic, namely, that those aspects in which all observers agree when they record a given phenomenon, may be regarded as objective, and not as contributed by the observers."1 Subjectivism or solipsism is against scientific relativism, which is sustained by the postulate of the plurality and objectivity of the universe.
Mahavira too was neither a sceptic nor an agnostic. He believed that these infinite number of attributes and characteristics can be discovered by experience alone, and not by a priori logical consideration or random speculations. But he does not admit of a distinction between the external and internal sources of knowledge or reality. A consideration will show the inadequacy of pure logic to give us the full knowledge of the real. The traditional laws of identity ( A is A), contradiction (A is not A ) or Excluded Middle (A cannot be both A and not A) have no appeal to experience and behaviour of things. There is no denying the fact that they are Laws of Thought and hence also laws of Reality but we must
ine their meanings by an appeal to experience alone. Reals are concrete facts of experience, Universal is the very life of particulars and particulars cannot be bereft of universals. But again, the truth of this can be realised through reference to our actual experience. Let us try to understand these problems with the help of dialogue between Mahavira and Gautama : “Are the souls O Lord, eternal, or non-eternal ?
They are eternal, O Gautama, from the view-point of substance, and non-eternal from the view-point of modes.”3
1. Russell, B. : 'Relativity', Encyclopaedia Birtannica ( Uni
versity of Chicago, 1950 ). 2. “The Logical Background of Jaina Philosophy”, by S.
Mookherjee in the Jaina Philosophy of Non-absolutism
( Calcutta : Bharati Mahavidyalaya, 1944). 3. Bhagavati Sūtra, VII. 2. 273.
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