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Jaina Theory of Multiple Facets of Reality and Truth
or at least that it has got something to do with the sense of a sentence. It is because of this, that the change in standpoint results into the change in the sense of the sentence and this could result into the change in the truth-value.
We could now say in response to the question we addressed ourselves to, that it is not the same statement which is true from one standpoint and false from another. It is rather the same sentence which expresses a true statement under one interpretation and a false statement under another. A standpoint in this sense is an interpretation of a given sentence or at least something that goes into the interpretation of a given sentence.
The above discussion supports an insight of Prof. B. K. Matilal which he exhibits when he translates syāt as 'in a sense'. 13 But if there is a truth in this insight, then another consequence follows. A syāt-statement in so far as it is a statement about a sense of a sentence, is a metalinguistic statement and not an object-linguistic one. The syāt-statement like 'syāt jīvaḥ nityaḥ seems to be directly about Self, but it is in fact directly about a sentence 'Self is permanent' and about the sense in which the sentence could be construed as true. It is a metalinguistic statement in disguise.
This fact about the logical structure of syādvāda may have some important implications in the field of Jaina ontology and also in the Jaina theory of values. But it could be a matter for a separate discussion.
13. "Thus syāt means in the Jaina use a conditional Yes. It is like saying "in a certain
sense, yes". B. K. Matilal, Op. cit., p.163.
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