New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

Author(s): Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers

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Jaina Logic of Āgama Period
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eternal and the candle light etc. as non-eternal. The Jainas are the upholders of permanence-cum-impermanence not in the sense that some objects are absolutely permanent and others are absolutely impermanent, as the Naiyāyikas think. According to Jainism everything, from space to the light of the candle, is permanent as well as impermanent. Neither the space is absolutely eternal, nor is the light absolutely non-eternal. There is innate transformation taking place in the space, and as such, it is also impermanent. Similarly, the light of the candle, on account of the eternality of the constituent atoms, is permanent as well. There is, therefore, nothing which is absolutely permanent or absolutely impermanent according to the philosophy of non-absolutism.6
(iii) All the doctrines of causation, viz. non-existence of the effect in the cause, existence of the effect in the cause and existencecum-non-existence of the effect in the cause presuppose particular systems of ontology. Samkhya system, being the upholder of the doctrine of existence of the effect in the cause, admits the preexistence of the effect in the cause. There cannot be the production of an effect which was absolutely non-existent in the past. The effect necessarily pre-exists in its material cause. All kinds of effects cannot originate from all kinds of causes. The causes, howsoever efficient, can produce only those effects which they are intrinsically capable of producing. The existence of the effect in the cause, therefore, is indisputable. The effect resides in the cause as a potentiality.
The Vaiseșika system supports the non-existence of the effect in the cause. In other words, it believes in causality as novel creation (ārambhavāda). One single indivisible entity is produced, according to this system, from the congregation of atoms, the entity being absolutely non-existent in the past.
The Buddhist philosophers are also the upholders of non-existence of the effect in the cause. The present moment, according to them, has absolutely no nexus with the moments that precede and succeed.
Jainism propounds the existence-cum-non-existence of the effect in the cause. In other words it conceives the real as an eternal entity perpetually undergoing change. From the substantial standpoint the real can never cease to exist, nor can an unreal ever be produced. The doctrine of the existence of effect in the cause is,