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CHAPTER 6
THE LOGICAL STRUCTURE OF SYĀDVĀDA
Pradeep P. Gokhale
The Jaina doctrine of syāt is a doctrine central to Jaina philosophy. In Jaina theory of pramāņas it is the doctrine which corresponds to śabdapramāņa or śrutapramāņa as understood by Jainas. The doctrine is closely connected with the Jaina ontology which highlights the infinite-fold character of reality. It is also closely connected with the Taina theory of values because it provides us with a methodological tool for exercising non-injury in the intellectual field.
In this paper I want to concentrate upon the nature of the Jaina doctrine of syāt, popularly known as syādvāda, with special reference to the logical structure of the doctrine.
I have remarked above that syādvāda corresponds to the Jaina account of sabdapramāna. Naturally syādvāda is concerned with statements or propositions. In the articulations of syādvāda we are generally given a list of seven statements or statement forms (bhangas) which are apparently inconsistent with each other. Every statement from the list contains the word syāt as a prefix. This inclusion of the word syāt in each statement implies amongst other things that the statements made as a part of the sevenfold scheme (saptabhangi) are not contradictory at all, but they throw light upon the different aspects of reality. This raises a question regarding the logical structure of the syāt statements (that is, the statements containing syāt as a prefix) as understood by the Jaina thinkers. In order to solve this question and understand clearly the import of syādvāda some modern scholars of
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