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Jaina View of Life
the impossibility of contradictory attributes co-existing in the same thing". After quoting the relevant passage from Rāmānuja he proceeds to say: “The Jainas admit that a thing cannot have self-contradictory attributes at the same time and in the same sense. All that they say is that everything is of a complex nature, and reconciles differences in itself. Attributes which are contradictory in the abstract co-exist in life and experience. The tree is moving in that its branches are moving and it is not moving since it is fixed to its place in the ground"40
VI. In Western thought, at the time of the Greeks, when there was intellectual confusion due to the conflicting theories presented by the different philosophers, several approaches to problems were possible. Parmenides had emphasized 'Being'; Heraclitus had talked of change; Empedocles and Anaxagoras had thought that the reality consists of a plurality of substances. The atomists left the infinite atoms floating in the air. Thus there was intellectual confusion. It was difficult to reconcile these conflicting views. Protagoras escaped the problem and said, Homo mensure. The Sophists left the wise to wrangle with them and the quarrel of the universe let be.
But the Jainas did not accept such an escapist attitude. They faced facts squarely and tried to find out what was common between the conflicting views of the philosophers. This was the Anekanta attitude of the Jainas.
The Jainas appeal to experience and say that a priori reasoning independent of experience is incompetent to yield insight into the nature of the real. The Jainas steer clear of conflicting views of reality. They make us aware of the fact that intellectual dogmatism is not healthy and a many-sided approach to the problem will develop in us a sense of tolerance and respect for others. Intellectual Ahimsa is most necessary, especially in an age when conflicting ideologies are trying to
40. Radhakrishnan (S): Indian Philosophy, Vol. I (Allen and Unwin)
1931, p. 304.
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