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Relevance of Anckanta in Modern Times
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there is wonderful reconciliation between conditionality and unconditionality. Every thing is conditional on thought level, but on the level of existence there is no real contradiction.
To avoid the fallacy of infinite regress, the Jainas distinguish between valid non-absolutism (Samyak Anekānta ) and invalid non-absolutism (Mithyā Anekānta ). Like an invalid absolute judgement, an invalid non-absolute judgement, too, is invalid. To be valid, Anekanta must not be absolute but relative.
If we consider the above points, we cannot say that the “theory of relativity cannot be logically sustained without the hypothesis of an absolute." Thought is not mere distinction but also relation. Everything is possible only in relation to and as distinct from othrers and the Law of Identity. Under these circumstances, it is not legitimate to hold that the hypothesis of an absolute cannot be sustained without the hypothesis of a relative. Absolute to be absolute presupposes a relative somewhere and in some forms, even the relative of its non-existence.
Jaina logic of Anekanta is based not on abstract intellectualism but on experience and realism leading to a non-absoJutistic attitude of mind. Multiplicity and unity, definability and non-definability etc. which apparently seem to be contradictory characteristics of reality are interpreted to co-exist in the same object from different points of view without any offence to logic. They seem to be contradictory of each other simply because one of them is mistaken to be the whole truth. Infact, integrity of truth consists in this very variety of its aspects, within the rational unity of an all comprehensive and ramifying principle. The charge of contradiction against the co-presence of being and non-being in the real is a figment of a priori logic.
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