Book Title: Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

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Page 230
________________ Relevance of Anekanta in Modern Times 221 Hence Anekinta doctrine is the exposition of the principle of 'comprehensive perspectivism'. No perspective is final or absolute unless it is understood in terms of relativity. Therefore, even Anekanta (non-absolutism ) is subject to Anekānta (non-absolutism ). If non-absolutism is absolute, it is not universal since there is one real which is absolute. And if it is not a non-absolute, it is not an absolute and universal fact. Tossed between the two horns of the dilemma, nonabsolutism thus simply evaporates. But we can meet this difficulty by making a distinction between the theory and practice of anekanta. Every proposition of the dialectical seven-fold judgement is either complete or incomplete. In the former, we use only one word that describes one characteristics of that object and hold the remaining characters to be identical with it. On the other hand, in the Incomplete judgement, we speak of truth as relative to our standpoint. In short, the complete judgement is the object of valid knowledge ( Pramāņa ) and the Incomplete Judgement is the object of aspectal knowledge (Naya ). Hence the (non-absolute is constituted of the absolute as its elements and as such would not be possible if there were no absolutes. Here we can solve this difficulty by analysing the nature of unconditionality of the statement "All statements are conditional', which is quite different from the normal meaning of unconditionality. This is like the idea contained in the passage - 'I do not know myself', where there is no contradiction between knowledge' and 'ignorance'. In the sentence, 'I am undecided', there is at least one decision that 'I am undecided'. Similarly, the categoricality behind a disjunctive judgement (A man is either good or bad ), is not like the categoricality of an ordinary categorical judgement like 'The horse is red'. True the basis is always categorical but this categoricality does never clash with the proposition being disjunctive. When a logical positivist says that there is no metaphysics', philosophy enters through the back-door. In short, the unconditionality in the statement 'All statements Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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