Jaina Psychology

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Page 21

JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
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This Determinism-Free Will controversy is due to the misrepresentation of the theories. Libertarianism is misrepresented by the adherents of Necessitarianism; Necessitarianism is misunderstood by the exponents of Libertarianism. This is not wholly due to wilfulness but arises partly on account of the ambiguity of language. Both parties commit themselves to a confusion which arises from language, and which is due to the fact that language is not meant to convey all the delicate shades of inner stages.'1 It is, therefore, necessary to have an analysis of the term 'cause' that plays a very important role in the discussion of the problem.
The term 'causality' is used to embrace many meanings. A scientist means by it uniformity of sequence. If this is a complete account of causation, Libertarianism is utterly worthless. The objection against this meaning is that it seems to be full of contradictions. There are uniform sequences which are not causally connected, as the conjunction of night and day. Some explanation, though not quite satisfactory, may be given regarding the conjunction of day and night. One horrible objection still remains unanswered and that objection is that uniform sequences land us in an infinite regress. Our discursive thought which tends to satisfy itself by going one step back is urged to go back for ever. Leaving the field of matter when we come to man, however, we find a cause' which is explicable by itself. We can analyse some of our actions and know why we act in these cases; it is because we have purposes which we wish to realise, ideals by which we guide our actions. We are unable to explain how we act, since activity is an ultimate element of our life, just as we cannot explain how we think, since thinking is our very existence; we cannot demonstrate how we think, because thinking is not something separate or different from us. So is the case with activity. The theory of causality is not sufficient enough to reveal the ultimate nature of events. It is, like the beginninglessness of the chain of karma, an attempt to understand a change or sequence without beginning. It is an attempt that succeeds only because
1 Time and Free Will, p. 160.