Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 75

Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekānta for Contemporary Life
the undifferentiated, the general, and the practical, are standpoints from which to investigate the thing itself, as a substance, whereas the remaining four are standpoints from which to investigate the modifications that things undergo. 12
Thus, we see that each naya or standpoint allows the investigator only a partial and, therefore, limited view of the object in question. The principal value of recognizing that a naya affords only a partial view of the object is that it enables one to distinguish between the limited view that results from a naya and the genuine knowledge that a valid means of knowledge, a pramăna, provides. This distinction, in turn, makes it possible to recognize when knowledge claims are excessive or one-sided (ekāntika) because they confuse a naya with a pramāna. As one perceives the object from a combination of standpoints one comes closer to seeing the object as it really is. But only by seeing it from all standpoints would one actually attain the kind of valid cognition that pramānas alone can provide.
Let us now turn to the question, What is meant by Syādvāda? Syādvāda is so named because it embodies a theory about how the logical operator "syāt" is used in all the seven varieties of a particular predication. To understand the philosophical use of syāt we must distinguish between its ordinary use and its logical function in Jain epistemology. In ordinary Sanskrit, "syāt" is often used to mean "maybe," as an alternative lying between "yes" or "no," both of which are rejected as an appropriate answer to a question. Thus, in its ordinary usage, "syat” transforms a categorical statement into a conditional statement. But the Jains used this particle in a very special epistemological sense to indicate the many-sided nature of a proposition. The uniqueness of the Jain approach to an epistemological middle way lies in its use of the “syat" particle in predication. Indeed, this uniqueness is why the seven-fold
12 For a detailed discussion of the seven nayas, see John M. Koller, "Syådvåda as the Epistemological Key to the Jaina Middle Way Metaphysics of Anekantavāda," in Philosophy East and West (Volume 50, Number 3, July 2000):400-407, pp. 401-403.
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