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The Logical Background of Jaina Philosophy
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but the results achieved by them are entirely incompatible with one another. So also with regard to the Vedantist and the Buddhist idealist. The Jaina also believes in the truth of the law of contradiction, but he insists that the source of the law should be sought not in a priori thought, but in concrete experience of the behaviour of things.
What should then be the criterion of contradiction and incompatibility? The Jaina affirms, “We consider a position to be incompatible, which has not the sanction of valid experience. But no amount of a priori cognition can dismiss a situation as incompatible, if it is found to be cognized by an accredited instrument of cognition. As regards contradiction between two facts, it is ascertained to hold between them when they are never found to co-exist in one substratum. There can be no coexistence between two facts which are contradictorily opposed to each other and in such a situation one is invariably superseded by the other. Light and darkness, heat and cold, are believed to be mutually contradictory, because they are never found to co-exist. But if the co-existence of any two things is attested by uncontradicted experience, there is absolutely no earthly reason why they should be regarded as mutually contradictory." The Buddhist does not believe in the unity of a whole since he scents contradiction between the existence and nonexistence of a selfsame quality in it even in respect of different parts. A piece of linen may be red in one half and black in the other half. The Naiyāyika and the Jaina do not find any contradiction in the situation, the linen is both red and black, but not in the same part. The Jaina is an empiricist so far as the knowledge of reality is concerned. But the Buddhist logician thinks that the linen in question is not one, but a conglomeration of atoms arranged in a certain juxtaposition, The 'red' is numerically different from the 'black', because the two are incompatible - thus would the Buddhist argue. The Jajna would assert that it is experience that makes us aware of the existence of 'black' and 'red' and also that they are not found in the selfsame part. Black and red are thus opposed only in reference to the selfsame specific part. But so far as the whole is concerned it is not subject to such a limitation. It actually embraces the two qualities in its own self, as it is found to do so by experience.
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