New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

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

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148 New Dimensions in Jaina Logic
Jaina systems on Jainism itself. The Jaina logicians have definitely borrowed some valuable concepts from logical systems contemporaneous with it. In their determination of the nature of inference they have followed the tradition of the Buddhist and Naiyāyika logicians. They have attempted clarification and amendment in conformity with their own thought and tradition about the subject of inference. The Buddhist logicians proposed the triple characteristic of a probans. But the Jaina thinkers made a remarkable advancement on it by proposing a unitary characteristic, viz. the logical impossibility in the absence of the other (anyathānupapatti). The following four categories of probantia are also unique contributions of the Jaina logicians
(1) A positive probans leading to an affirmative conclusion. (2) A positive probans leading to a negative conclusion. (3) A negative probans leading to a negative conclusion. (4) A negative probans leading to a positive conclusion.
The above-mentioned examples unambiguously demonstrate the fact that Indian thought unceasingly went on enriching itself by inter-disciplinary influences and was never stagnant on account of dogmatism and stalemate consequent upon individual aloofness. It was to an appreciable extent free from the obsession that refutation of alien systems and confirmation of one's own was the only aim and object of a particular system of thought. The process of give and take was always in vogue-a phenomenon which characterises the entire range of Indian literature in all its ramifications.
Philosophy and Logic: New possibilities.
In concluding the discussion of the science of logic it would not be out of place to turn our attention to new possibilities in the field. There is no doubt that epistemology and logic in their developed form have been recognised as essential parts of philosophical speculations. It is also undeniable that logic brought about a stagnation in the stream of philosophical thinking by keeping it bogged down to exposition of the tenets and the doctrines of the bygone days. The entire energy of the majority of philosophers remained engaged in splitting hair in place of discovering new truths. And as a result dry logic drove scientific observation to a place of unimportance. The doors of new discovery and investigation of new facts were completely closed in the absence of the power of deep observation and scientific experiment.
The search for truth has three avenues, viz. (1) observation, (2)