New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

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New Dimensions in Jaina Logic
validity of Vedānta. Much earlier, the great Jaina logician Mallavàdin, in the fifth century A.D., in his Dvādasāranayacakra demonstrated the inadequacy of one philosophy by another in a graduated scheme of nayas. He ultimately established the validity of none independently, emphasizing the soundness of a philosophy that encompasses all individual schools into a comprehensive whole, synthesising all of them, pointing out their relevance and proper place in the world view.
The philosophy propounded by an individual naya, being only a partial estimate of reality, is untrue. Only the co-ordinated view of all those philosophies is true. This synthetic approach has saved logic from the whirlpool of wrangling and given the search for truth a sound and dependable basis.
An important contribution of Jaina logic to Indian thought is the classification of the valid organs of knowledge (pramāna). The fault of intermixture (sankirnatā doșa) or overlapping is avoided by the classification of the organs as pratyaksa (direct) and parokșa (indirect). All possible valid organs of knowledge are comprehended by it. The object is either known directly or through other means or medium. These are the only two ways of knowing which are the basis of the above-mentioned two divisions. The Buddhist and the Vaiseșika logicians accepted pratyaksa (perception) and anumāna (inference) as the two valid organs of knowledge, but they had to prove the āgama (scriptural testimony) as included under the inference (anumāna). It is not beyond controversy to include āgama under the inference. Under paroksa (indirect) organ of knowledge it is easy to include inference, agama, memory (smrti), reasoning (tarka) etc. and thus their definitions also can be made free from the faults of intermixture or overlapping (sankirnatā doşa). Thus considered the Jaina classification of the valid organs of knowledge is universally acceptable, being based on a realistic estimate of the problem.
The consecutive stage of sensuous perception (avagraha, iha, avaya and dhāraņā) of the Jaina is also an important contribution to Indian epistemology. This has been discussed in the first chapter entitled 'The Jaina Logic of the Agama Period' and also in the sixth called 'Organs of knowledge'. This analysis of perceptual cognition is very important from the psychological viewpoint.
The problem of self-validity (svataḥ prāmānya) of the knowledge is a widely discussed topic of logic. In the tradition of