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The Jaina Philosophy
cause when it is operating, and an operating cause is itself the effect. Hydrogen and oxygen, in their ordinary condition, are not water; vibrating in a peculiar electrical way, they are not only the cause and water the effect, but water is what they are in this relation. Any object, divested of all relations, could not be called by any other name than Being or Ens. As an abstraction or generalization, the process has its use.
In order to study the various aspects of things and ideas, this method of analysis is invaluable. But to call Being or "Eternal Ens" the cause or the noumenon, or the absolute, and distinguish it from the effect, calling it the unreal, phenomenon, or relative, is pseudo-analysis. The Jaina process of acquiring knowledge may be described as follows: First, there is the indefinite cognition as an isolated object or idea; it is the state of the mind prior to analysis, that condition of things to which analysis is to be applied. This what is really meant by unity, or identity, of the universe with the real which many philosophers proclaim- It makes no difference whether this unity or identity finds its-home in a sensuous object or a subjective idea, the process is the same. Next comes analysis - the dissolving, separating, or differencing of the parts, elements, properties, or aspects. Last comes the synthesis, which is putting together the primitive indefinite cognition - synstatis with the subsequent analysis; so that the primitive cognition shall not be a complete annihilation or disappearance by the condensation of all differences, and so that, on the other hand, the analysis shall not be an absolute diffusiveness isolation, or abstraction, destructive of all unity, which is not the primitive unity but the relational unity of a variety of aspects. The analytical method is known in the Jaina literature as Nayavada (consideration of aspects). The synthetical method is known as Syad-vada (doctrine of the inexpugnability of the inextricably combined properties and relations) or Anekanta-vada (doctrine of non-isolation). Voluminous works on this subject have
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