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Multi-dimensional Application of Anekāntavāda
Anekāntavāda - an Appraisal
* When we extend non-violence from reverence of life to reverence for thought, we are led to non-absolutism. Non-absolutism is held as important as non-violence by Jaina philosophers. Unto Tahinen, Ahimsa-Non-violence in Indian Tradition. Navajeevan Pub. House, Ahmedabad, (1983 p.85)
* A wider outlook avoids quarrels, which lead to marital conflicts and confrontations (D.N. Bhargava, Jaina Ethics, Delhi 1968 p. 108) * The Syadvada or Anekāntavāda affirms that a predication is notified absolutely but only if one take into account multiple conditions (Anekanta). The Syadvada is a synthetic method of knowledge. Non the less subtle, the Nayavada is on the contrary analytical (Colette Caillat, Jainism, Macmillan company of India Ltd. 1974, p.26) * The Jaina philosophers has taken the fullest advantage of Nayavāda not only in building his system by a judicious search and balance of various view points, but also in understanding sympathetically the views of others from which he differs and in appreciating why there is difference between the two. This analytical approach to reality has saved him from extremism, dogmatism and fanaticism and has further bred in him remarkable intellectual toleration a rare virtue indeed (A.N.. Upadhye, 'Jainism' Macmillan company of India Limited.)
* Anekānta affirms the possibility of diverse attributes in a unitary entity. Strictly speaking, a thing is neither an absolute unity nor split up into an irreconcilable plurality. It is both unity and plurality of aspects. (Satkari Mookerjee, The Jaina Philosophy of Non-absolutism. Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1978 p.27)
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Any existent must be seen on three levels: the modes, which last for only a moment and belongs to the qualities; the qualities, which undergo changes and the substance, which remains abiding common ground of support for the qualities and their modes. To a single moment one can be aware either to the passing unity (ekatva) of the substance or the transient multiplicity (anekatva) of its modes. This complexity of the existent, its simultaneous unity and multiplicity, eternity and transience - finds expression in the Jaina term Anekānta, manifold aspects, which purports to fully describe the existent's nature. (P.S. Jaini, The Jaina
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