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qualified by Existence, (6) Inexpressibility as qualified by Non-existence, and (7) Inexpressibility as qualified by both Existence, and Non-existence.
Syadvāda asserts that knowledge of reality is possible only by denying the absolutistic attitude,
We may notice that the superposition principle of quantum mechanics provides an illuminating example of the Syädväda mode of description. Let kets Ja> and la" be the different eigenstates of an observable a for a quantum mechanical system. Let |P> a+a">. We have the Syadva la mode of description:
(1) System is in state a'>.
(2) System is not in state | a"> (but in a'>).
(3) System is both in state a'> and a''>, represented by the mixture
|a'> <a' | + |a"><a".
(4) System is in an indeterminate state, (not eigenstate of a) represented by
P>= a'>">.
(5) System is in an indeterminate state and in state (1) represented by [P><P|+|'><a' |.
(6) Systemfis an indeterminate state and in state (2), represented by P><P
+la"><a".
(7) System is in an indeterminate state and in (3),
represented by P><P|+|a'><a ́ |+|a"><a" |
Syadvāda asserts that a thing is "A", and it is also "not A" and both "A and not A", and so on. It is an exhortation to investigate reality from all different possible viewpoints. It is not a doctrine of indifference or passive acceptance of statements and also their negative. It is just the contrary. It demands our ascer taining the conditions, the coordinate frames as it were, under which a thing is "A", the (different) conditions under which it is "not A", conditions under which it can be both "A" and "not A" and so on.
Unlike Syādvāda, in Aristotelean logic a thing is either "A" or it is "not A". Here the main concern is an examination of a thing from one particular standpoint, and not from all the different standpoints. A Jain logician may contend that this is a meaningless effort. Any meaningful examination involves more than one standpoint. A thing can never be examined twice from an identical standpoint,
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