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The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism
the recognition of the fact that the Buddhist cannot afford to deny the direct cognition of the name of the thing when the latter is perceived. If he denies this, he cannot explain the recollection of such names, which is possible only on the basis of experience. Only that is recollected which has been previously perceived. But all perception being of a thing unattached to a name, the perception of name is ruled out as an impossibility. Nor can a name be perceived independently because that would also be a nameless intuition. The same argument would make the intuition of concepts impossible, as concepts and names go together. The difficulty here is only a restatement of the difficulty of causation discussed in the preceding paragraph. How can a nameless non-conceptual intuition give rise to conceptual thought invariably associated with names ? A defence has been made against this charge of impossibility. It is asserted that the recollection of the name and of the thing having the name takes place at one and the same time. The intuition of a thing acts as the stimulant of the memory-traces of the two together and so the difficulty does not arise at all. But even if the simultaneous recollection of the name and the thing named is conceded for the sake of argument, the problem of the original perception is not solved. Names and concepts are psychical facts, even if obiective universals, for which they are supposed to stand as witness, may be denied. The existence of these concepts can be proved only by perception which, as we have shown, is the only proof of the existence of anything. But if the perception of these concepts be non-conceptual and non-verbal, that will not give certitude of their reality. If the ensuing reflective judgment required other concepts and other names, the result would be a regressus ad infinitum. The absurdity of simple non-conceptual intuition is further demonstrated by the consequences which arise from the consideration of the perception of names. Names, like concepts, must be perceived. It is only on the basis of their perception that they can be judged to exist. But if judgment of names required the association of other names, the result would be a vicious infinite series. If concepts and names, on the other hand, be admitted to be perceived and judged independently of other names and concepts, the Jaina would ask the Buddhist to admit the validity of perceptual
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