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Biological Issues in the Bh.S
The concept of soul or Atman has been one of the fundamental doctrines of almost all Indian philosophies. Some of the Indian schools treat Atman as the Primordial element of the universe. According to them, the whole cosmos has emerged from one entity i.e. the Supreme Being (Paramātman or Brahman). The Jain philosophy regards that the world of our experience is either a living entity or the entities left by the living ones. It is, according to Jainism, because earth, water, air, fire etc. are not devoid of consciousness.
Jain philosophy describes conscious substance from several points of view, such as, metaphysical, cosmological, spiritual, psychological and biological, etc. In Jainism, due to this multi-dimensional character of conscious substance many important theories have come into being. All of them cannot be dealt with within one chapter. In present work only a few biological issues have been taken-up. Besides, some important concepts that had been longstanding problems before the Eastern and Western philosophy as well as Psychology, have been discussed with reference to the Bh.S in particular. Arguments for the Existence of Soul
The complicated problem of the existence of soul has baffled almost all the thinkers of the world. There have been philosophers who did not believe in an independent existence of the soul, like the Carvaka' in India and Thales,? Anaximander,Anaximenes, Heraclituss etc. in Greek. During the time of Lord Mahāvīra such thoughts were not altogether absent. According to Sūtrakstānga, 368 schools of thought were prevailing at that time. Some of them were not in favour of the existence of soul. They raised many cross-questions regarding the concept of soul. Lord Mahāvīra was one of the greatest founders of this concept of his time. Most of his philosophy
