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The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism
since without these principles the data of experience cannot be organized into a system. These categories in spite of their general and comprehensive character are not only not incosistent with the existence of individual entities, but on the contrary they are entirely based upon the objective data. Without the individual existents these categories would be reduced to unmeaning classconcepts. The affirmation of categories as objective principles is thus proof of the existence of individual reals, which are included within the ambit of these categories. Without the individuals forming their contents the categories would be empty and barren, and the individuals without the categories would be reduced to a welter of chaos. The Jaina is a believer in plurality no doubt, but that plurality is not an unrelated chaos. The plurality is a system inasmuch as each individual is cemented with the rest by definite bonds of relationship.
The different categoies are but different articulations of one existence, which runs through them as the underlying common bond. It would be a perversity of outlook and an anomalous inconsistency on the part of the Jaina philosopher, who always insists upon the necessity of a total view of reality that should be on guard against the abstractionist habit of thought, if the aspect of plurality were only emphasised by him to the detriment of the reality of unity, which is equally attested with plurality in the being of a real. It is a matter of gratification and relief that the Jaina philosopher has not been caught napping. The aspect of unity is emphasized not only in the individual's constitution as an individualistic trait, but the unity of all reals in spite of their infinite variations is not ignored and slurred over.
The individuals are in the first instance brought under comprehensive universals called categories. Thus, the individual substances, in spite of their varying individualities and without the slightest prejudice to their status as autonomous individuals, have been placed under one category, viz., substance. The grouping of individuals under a universal is not a matter of procedure or of convenience of methodogical treatment, which is more or less of subjective value to the philosopher. The universal as a unitive principle is not regarded as the figment of speculative thought, but as an immanent principle having a co-ordinate status with the individualities inherent in things.
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