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The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism
as both existent and non-existent in the sanie reference ? Certainly this would be a contradiction in terms. Nor can it be meant that the cow-universal, which is the meaning of the cow-concept, is an attribute of both existents and non-existents. Nobody thinks that the cow-universal belongs to non-existents as an attribute. Let, again, it be interpreted as evidence of the cow being the subject of both these determinations. But if this be the point the Buddhist would seek to establish, the argument would be a case of pure non sequitur. It is a fact that the cow-universal has the positive character of being a universal and also the negative character of not being a quality, or not having a quality which can belong only to a substance. But the possession of such positive and negative character does not involve any contradiction. Even the self-characterized particular, which is the only reality according to the Buddhist, is also found to be possessed of a positive and a negative character. The individual cow is existent quâ a cow and non-existent quâ a horse. But this dual predication does not spell a contradiction even according to the Buddhist. It passes one's understanding why should this dual characterization prove the unreality of the cow-universal.
Let it be held that the meaning of the dual characterization is not anything of the kind considered above. But let it be supposed to mean that the universal has a definite community of nature with existent and non-existent. But this also is not a tenable hypothesis, as a universal is a determination of existents and not of non-entities. So it cannot be such a common attribute. It may be contended that negation of the opposite is found to be a common characteristic of both existents and non-existents, and this constitutes the neutral community of the universal. Thus, for instance, the negation of not-cow may stand for the cow as well as a fiction, and the universal being such a negation must have this common character. But this would be a case of petitio principii, as it takes for granted that a universal is a negative concept which is the matter of dispute.
Let us, then, suppose that the meaning of the dual predication is that the subject is thought of as existent and non-existent both. But is existence predicated in the same reference with non-existence? This is certainly impossible owing to the contradiction involved. Neither the Buddhist nor the Naiyáyika can
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