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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
of the self on the indubitable fact of the process of thinking and reasoning. He doubted everything but he could not doubt the doubter. The doubter is a substance.
Spinoza said that substance has infinite number of attributes, and among them consciousness and extension are prominent. Consciousness is a form of the attribute of thought. That is the Self. Similarly, extension has its infinite modes, they constitute the physical universe.
John Locke said that Self is the object of direct experience. "I think, I argue, I experience pleasures and pains.” The “l' is the substance, it is the substratum of experiences. Self is an object of knowledge.
George Berkely has shown that the universe is constituted of three principles : (1) The self, (2) God (Ultimate self) and (3) The external world. The consciousness is the essential characteristic of the soul. Without consciousness soul cannot exist.
The philosophers that we have just mentioned, Descartes, Locke and Berkely have shown that the reality of the self is self evident. No proofs are necessary, no arguments are necessary. But, David Hume denied the reality of the Self and said that it is only a fleeting collection of impressions. His view is nearer to the Buddhist concept of ātman as not a real substance but merely an aggregate of physical and mental states.
The scientists right from the beginning have been discussing the problem of the nature of the self but they have not come to any definite conclusion. The problem of the Self bas still remained a mystery.
THE PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE ATMAN
Attempts have been made to give positive proofs for the existence of the ātman. On the contrary, there have been attempts to: argue against the existence of the ātman. But on the whole, it can be said that arguments against the existence of the ātman do not hold ground. Therefore, there is a possibility of maintaining that the ātman is real. It is an independent substance It is a spiritual substance. We cannot get the knowledge of the ātman through the senses. Still, this would not be a counter-argument against the exis
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