Source Book in Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Tarak Guru Jain Granthalay

Page 26

A SOURCÉ-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
Logic This gave way to the place of reason. In the process of intellectual enquiry, man began to get hold on the understanding of the phenomena of nature. The cardinal dictum in this age was the question : "What is the nature of Reality ?”. The criterion of the origin of philosophy lies in the inquiry into the nature of reality.
HL Wonder Some philosophers contend that philosophy had its origin in curiosity to understand Nature's phenomena which was baffling to the finite mind. The World of Nature thwarted the imaginations of the poet and the seer. The sublimity of nature's beauty, the grandeur and the fragrance of blooming flowers, the fierce wind blowing, the sunshine, the rapturous scenes of the flowing of rivers and the roaring of seas, the dazzling-twinkling stars in the sky amidst the encircling beauty of moon's light-all the aspects of nature's delight were the subjects of philosophical enquiry into the nature of its origin and creation. The Greek philosophers hold the view that the origin of philosophy lies in 'wonder'. To think and to wonder by looking at the vicissitudes of life is philosophy.
Hill Doubt The origin of modern philosophy is to be traced to this early tendency of doubting spirit and also to the questioning attitude, Francis Bacon, for instance, began to doubt the teachings of the Church. He aimed at bringing about a synthesis between science and philosophy on the basis of integration, and he ended with founding philosophy on the solid foundation of intuitive experience. It may be noted here that science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy alone gives us wisdom. Science is analytical description while philosophy is synthetic interpretation. “Men are not animals erect," said Francis Bacon, "but immortal gods." He contended that man must war only on the obstacles that nature offers to the triumph of man.
Descartes too stressed the need of 'methodic doubt' as the cobweb-clearing prerequisite of honest thought. He built his super-structure of mathematical philosophy based on the notion of 'doubt'. Immanuel Kant based his philosophy on the critique of