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Relations
189
The assertion of infinite diversity does not make the conception of atoms impossible. An atom is ex hypothesi an indivisible unit. But though spatially indivisible it may be divisible in other dimensions. Anatom has a plurality of aspects and thus it can be divided into these aspects. The Jaina would thus have no objection to McTaggart's view of the infinite divisibility of substance, as both are agreed upon the point that the manifold of qualities, original and derivative, that are possessed by reals, is infinite. As regards the objection of Dharmakirti that relation cannot belong to existent or to non-existent terms, the Jaina meets him half way. The terms in relation are neither wholly finished entities nor nonentities. Relation is identity of different terms. Such being the case, the terms are neither what they were out of relation nor do they change their identity entirely when they come to be terms of a relation. Let us consider the relation of yarn and linen which we cited above. The linen is the product and yarn is the material cause of it. The linen was not in existence quâ linen before it came into being. But it was not an absolute non-entity as it existed as yarn. It is the yarn which becomes linen and so the two are not different in an absolute sense. The linen again abstracted from the yarn is only an idea and a fiction. So the linen as the other term of the causal relation was in existence before quâ yarn, though not quâ linen. The yarn in question was existent quâ yarn, but not quâ linen. Yarn and linen are not quâ substance two absolutely different entities, but they are the same substance with difference of qualities. The relation of linen and yarn is an instance of internal relation - internal in the sense that the change occurs in the causal stuff and the changed cause becomes the effect. The effect is the product of a process, which goes within the cause and so the production of the other term and that of its relation are rather simultaneous events. But so far as relation is considered as a separate fact, it must be recog. nized that it is not external to the terms in the sense that it can exist independently of the latter. Relation, whether internal or external is integral to the terms and is the result of an internal change in the nature of terms. So also such external relations as conjunction of two fingers are nothing external in the sense of being independent. The fingers conjoined are no longer absolutely the same entities as they were while out of relation. The fact
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