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Jainism As Metaphilosophy
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ultimately (in so far as Reality is the subject-matter of philosophy), the question as to how this knowledge is to be obtained, suggests itself as une logically next one. In this sense, the expression “the methods of philosophy" should be understood more concretely as "methods by employing which knowledge of Reality can be acquired."
Since knowledge presupposes the knower as well as the object(s) he wants to know (also referred to as objects of knowledge), enquiring into the means by which the former acquires a knowledge of the latter comes to be regarded as vitally important while analysing how the knower can know the object. The means of knowing are referred to as pramāna.
It is contextually important to recount here that while the ancient Hindu philosophers considered in detail both the means of knowing (pramāņa) and the objects of knowledge (prameya), the Jaina philosophers confined their attention to the idea of pramāna alone. The implication of this emphasis on the means of knowing' is perhaps that focusing on the ways of getting knowledge is more specifically called for while discussing the methods of philosophy. A well-known scholar of Indian logic explains the situation as follows:
The ancient logic dealt with sixleen categories such as pramāna, prameya, clc.comprising such heterogeneous elements as doctrine of salvation and nature of the soul, etc. The medieval logic (which includes the Jaina and the Buddhist views*), on the contrary, concerns itself with one category, viz. pramāņa, which touches upon other categories only in so far as these are necessary for
its proper elaboration.' Primacy is given to the pramāna-aspect of the knowing process since a consideration of it would per force include an analysis of the objects regarding which knowicdge is sought. Hence an elaborate reflection on the pramānas would vouchsafc for a synoptic view of the knowledge-situation.
What is even more significant is that in Jainism “the doctrine of pramāna is created in such a way that it may be equally applied to the ...systems of the Brahmaņas (Hindus*), Jainas and Buddhists." - This is perhaps one other reason why the Jaina concept of philosophy can be hoped to be explicated by considering the way they dealt with philosophical problems.
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