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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
particularity of the object is synthesised. It gives importance to the aspect of generality and particularity of an object and takes a synoptic view of the relative importance of generality and particulrity.1 Nyāya-Vaiseşika2 darśanas maintain that generality and particularity are independent categories, but the Jainas do not accept this view, for the particular and general are inter-dependent. One cannot exist without the other. There is no particular without the reference to the general and there is nothing general without reference to the particular. A thing can be looked at from the points of view of generality or of the speciality of an object. When we want to distinguish one object from another, the emphasis is on particularity or differentia, although it has general nature in relation to other similar objects. We give secondary importance to general characteristics or the universlity. For instance, when we distinguish one man from the other, we consider them in particulars, but the general nature of man as such remains secondary. Similarly, when we look at objects from the point of view of generality as belonging to a class, its special characteristics or differentia remain secondary, although they are there in the objects. When we consider two different men as man, we make the distinguishing feature of the two men, as secondary.
Naigamanaya is concerned with the synthetic approach to the problem of understanding the nature of the object and its qualities, the relational activity and the agent of the activity. The two aspects like the substance and activity, the relation and the objects of relation and activity and the objects of activity, have both the aspects of identity and difference. From a particular point of view, they can be considered as identical, because there is no absolute difference between the substance and its qualities etc. But from another point of view, i. e., from the point of view of looking at objects on the basis of distinctions and particularity, the differences are emphasised. In these cases, when the identity is emphasised differences are looked as
1 (a) Tattvārthabhāṣya 1, 35. (b) Nayakarṇikā
(c) Anuyogadvāra sūtra ṭīkā.
2 Syālvälinañjarī, śloka 14th ṭīkā
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