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Jaina Theory of Multiple Facets of Reality and Truth
The Model of Conditionality Prof. Sagarmal Jain'' and Prof. B.K. Matilal" in their papers have interpreted independently syādvāda in terms of conditional propositions. Prof. Jain has even formulated a complete version of saptabhangi in terms of conditional statements; but we need not go into the full details of it. The essence of the view of both Prof. Matilal and Prof. Jain is that the proposition of the form syāt ghataḥ asti' could be expressed as a conditional statement in which the statement 'the pot exists' is the consequent and the standpoint from which the consequent is asserted is expressed by the antecedent.
The first two forms in the seven-fold scheme could be instanciated with the help of another instance as follows: 1. If ‘self means the present act of consciousness then the self is
impermanent. 2. If'self' means the substance to which different acts of consciousness
are attributed, then the self is permanent. The forms of the two statements are
C1 (S is P) C2(S is not-P)
This interpretation is better than the earlier two interpretations in an important respect. It takes the word syāt to mean 'under such and such condition' which is very close to 'in some respect', the meaning of 'kathancit'.
However, the interpretation seems to have at least two major drawbacks.
(i) Syāt-statements under this interpretation are supposed to appear
as conditional or hypothetical statements. But actually syātstatement does not have if-then form. A conditional statement does not exclude the possibility that its antecedent be false and yet the consequent be true. But a syāt-statement seems to
10. "Syādvāda: Eka Cintana" (Hindi Article), included in Studies in Jainism, Op. cit.,
pp.167-192. 11. “Saptabhangi”, included in Self, Knowledge and Freedom, Op. cit., pp.159-172.
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