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THE SAPTBHANGI NAYA
OR The pluralistic argument of the Jain dialectics.
The great argument by which Jain dialecticians seek to ascertain the truth of all animate and inanimate things in the world is called tlie Saptbhangi Naya, the sevenfold argument-in that it is made up of seven propositions, each revealing a partial truth, but all combined, disclosing the maximum of truth that is possible about a thing. This is a position of liberal pluralism as coi:trasted with dogmatic monism in viewing things and forming judgments thereon. For instance, if the question is whether a thing exists or no, the Jain dialectician would look at it from different points of views before arriving at a conclusion. He would not commit himself to any judgment by taking into consideration only one point of view of the question as other philosophers do. Let us cast the question into the form of a concrete example and briefly survey the view-points of the followers of some of the leading philosophical doctrines in the East and the West. The concrete example may be the
