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Approach to Reality
13
anekānta Realism. Anekānta is the most consistent form of realism', as it allows the principle of distinction to run its full course until it reaches its logical terminus on the theory of manifold reality andknowledge.a
Anekānta consists in a many-sided approach to the study of problems. It emphasizes a catholic outlook towards all that we see and experience. Intellectual tolerance is the foundation of the doctrine. It arose as an antidote to the one-sided and absolute approach to the study of reality of the philosophers at that time. It arose out of the confusion of the conflicting views of the philosophers and religious men on the problem of the nature of reality. The Upanişadic philosophers sought to find the facts of experience. This search gave rise to many philosophical theories. Buddhism tried to present a fresh and a different approach in the Madhyamā. pratipadā Dşşti. The Anekanta view presents a coherent picture of the philosophies, pointing out the important truths in each of them. It looks at the problem from various points of view. The cardinal principle of the Jaina philosophy is its Anekānta which emphasizes that there is not only diversity but that real is equally diversified."
II. Although Anekānta was a special feature of the Jaina point of view, it is possible to say that some other schools of thought were aware of this view. In Buddhist philosophy the phrase majjhima magga bears the same significance as Anekānta. Pandit Sukhalalaji Sanghavi, in his introduction to the Sanmati Tarka, says that the doctrine of Anekānta and the madhyma märga have great resemblance in the fundamental idea underlying them. Anātmavāda of Sanjaya, Vibhajjavāda,
2. Padmarajiah (Y. J.): Jaina Theory of Reality and Knowledge.
(Jaina Sāhitya Vikäsa Mandala, Bombay) (1963) p. 274. 3. Mookerjee : The Jaina Philosophy of Non-absolutism (Bharati
Mahavidyālaya) (1944) p. 70. 4. Sanmati Tarka : edited with introduction by Pandit Sukhalalii
Sanghvi and Pandit Doshi.
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