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The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism
other hand, absolutely different also. The identity of the pen persists in spite of the change of characteristics and this demands an explanation. The Vedantist idealist has declared change to be illusory on the basis of this Law of Identity. The pen 'black' and the pen 'white' are not absolutely the same identity, and the difference in qualities undoubtedly implies a difference in identity. The matter will be fully discussed in a subsequent chapter when we shall discuss the problem of change. It will be proved that change connotes difference and identity, and both should be accepted as true. What the Jain maintains is that the nature of reals can be understood from experience, and reflective thought only helps to clarify our conception. It cannot and should not ascribe to the real any attribute or element that does not belong to it in its own right. This is the fundamental position of all realistic philosophy. But realists, as a matter of historical fact, have not been able to maintain their loyalty to this fundamental position without compromise.
A slight consideration will show the inadequacy of pure logic to give us the full knowledge of a real unless it is supplemented and reinforced by experience. Thus, the pen in question is a pen, no doubt, but that is not the whole of it. A pen is a substance, good or bad, soft or hard, black or blue, or white and infinite other things, which are to be gathered from the progressive expansion of knowledge of its nature. If anybody were to argue on the basis of the Law of Identity that a pen should not be anything else than the pen as it was at the first moment of its existence, certainly his argument would be false. The logician may contend that the identity of the pen includes all these possibilities within its own ambit and so the law does not suffer. Yes, it is exactly the case, but the law does not help us in the least so far as our knowledge of the identity is concerned. The identity is accepted to be true in the midst of all these varying attributes, because experience certifies the continuity of the pen all the while. This should be a pointer in the case of change of attributes. The pen does not forfeit its identity with the change of characteristics, that is entailed by the efflux of time, as it is recognized to be the same pen. There is no reason to call in question the reality of change or of the identity, as both are perceived facts. Every entity is subject to change and
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